


The Dead & Cobalt

by FueledByDonuts



Category: Penguins of Madagascar
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Angst, Apocalypse, Character Deaths, Depression, Drama, Horror, Multi, Suspense
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-15
Updated: 2017-04-23
Packaged: 2018-09-08 17:56:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 57,963
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8855311
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FueledByDonuts/pseuds/FueledByDonuts
Summary: S1E2 — "Inferno": The dead exhume from the earth and begin devouring the living. New York is quarantined, leaving the Penguins exposed to the outside. The military take drastic actions to keep the disease from spreading. The group aim for the hospital to save the lives of Kowalski and many others, but doing such thing comes with a cost. The group over at Atlanta remain separated.





	1. Not Fade Away: Part One

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own The Penguins of Madagascar or any of the themes displayed here.
> 
> Thing before the Author's Note: If this is your very first time reading this, I do have to say that this story will have OCs that were introduced to me about two years ago. But, I'm not here to bore you to death with their bland personalities. I know some of you get put off by the sight of OCs (I do too). I'm here to prove that OCs are okay in fanfics if the character has a specific significance and adds to the plot instead of just existing there with one-liners and horrible, horrible love stories. 
> 
> This is probably going to be the largest story I've ever written (because I've written so much heh *sarcasm*). So, this story will probably take me years to write and complete. You will see these characters develop, grow and on many occasions, die.
> 
> So, the characters you will witness here will not be the same towards the end of the story. The penguins will not be who they used to be. Their entire world will fall apart. Fairly quickly, actually.
> 
> In this fanfic, no one is safe. Not even the penguins or any other Madagascar character that will appear here. Hell, I can kill one of them in the very beginning, and still have a story to write. But, I won't do that because that wouldn't be fun. I'll have to put them through the very definition of hell, at least. When the story begins, there won't be many recognizable people at first, but don't fret. A lot of Madagascar characters will come into play much later on. Much. Later.
> 
> So, this story is in an alternate universe. Meaning that there are no humans living amongst the animals. Human isn't even a word in their dictionary. Humans always seemed to be holding the characters back from what they can do, so I decided to off them all of. Those pesky humans.
> 
> I will begin to explain the second story of this fanfic when I post the first chapter of 'Cobalt', so no details until then.
> 
> Without further ado, here's the story you've probably miss-clicked on. Enjoy.

**Prologue**

**Unknown Location**

Tall grass stretched for miles across the open plain. The large, puffy clouds loomed across the blue sky. The tall yellow grass swayed with the cool winds of the fall, producing an ocean of pure gold. A lemon-colored butterfly flapped its wings over the top of the large field, slowly passing by the yellow sea.

The butterfly lowered, making its decent towards the ground. Brushing past the blades of grass, the insect landed on a small pool of red liquid. It extended its black tongue and began slurping the crimson liquid. Its wings, the only thing audible, slowly opened and closed in five second intervals. There was a dead silence. The wind died; the grass stopped roaring.

That's when a gunshot broke the deafening peace. The butterfly slowly crept across the pool of blood. Its hairy legs stretched the thick liquid with every step. A low groan was heard, creeping closer to the insect. The wheezing intensified, causing the insect to flap its wings frantically to escape the loud noise. But, to no avail, the butterfly was trapped in the thick liquid. Its panicking only caused its right wing to come into contact with the pool of blood. The thick liquid slowly ran up the veins of the wings, making its way towards the innocent creature. The groaning grew louder, lurking towards the butterfly.

The tall grass came crashing down, revealing a hideous beast. Its face was dark and frayed. Flaps of flesh hung by a thread. Blood ran down its cheeks and forehead. It was missing its left eye. The blank, soulless eye peered off into the distance. Its lips had eroded away, leaving only the yellow, jagged teeth and purple, bloody gums.

Its arms came forward, helping drag the disfigured creature to its destination. The insect had given up trying to flee. Its wings were completely soaked in the warm blood. Its wings slowly opened and closed, as it drew its last breath.

The horrible creature dragged itself once more; its matted arms were covered in slashes. There were two major ones where its wrists were, revealing the pink bone underneath. Blood soaked its forearms, causing the soil and pieces of dead grass to be carried away with it.

The creature lifted up its head, hissing at the sky. It was quickly silenced by a sharpened spear. The weapon shattered through the skull and came out its jowl, spilling blood down on the insect that now had its head swell up in size.

The spear was quickly retrieved, making a squishing noise as the creature fell with a splat. The man looked down upon the dead creature in disgust. He hated the things. The reason of existence remained unsolved, but the sight of these beings made his blood boil. The smell was the worst part. The stench of rotten flesh burned his nostrils. He never was used to the smell. He always tried to take his mind off of the smell, as if it would help killing off these things. But he still had to look at them. The distorted faces of people who were once alive.

He looked up towards the tall hills in the distance. There was the deafening silence again. He didn't want to look behind himself. He'd have to face the massive failure he had achieved. They tell him that they captured him, that it would all be over. But, will it? They still have to face the dead. Even if they have him in custody, they still have to put up with this world. He knew that there were going to be more of them. That was what made him scared. It wasn't the dead; it was the living.

"God help us…" he whispered to himself.

He turned around, looking up high at the sky where the white smoke billowed. From a distance he witnessed his family moving about, carrying luggage onto a campervan. Between him and his family, hundreds of rotten mangled corpses. They'll have to start burning soon. And fast. Otherwise, more of them will come. He didn't even notice the butterfly's head below him split open, spilling yellow pus against the pool of blood.

"We'll be okay." He told himself. Even that lie couldn't keep him sane. He knows things will only get worse. The scary thing about it: he couldn't do anything to stop it.

* * *

_The Dead_

_Season One_

**Not Fade Away**

**Queens County, New York City, New York**

Another morning made its way to the suburbs of the city. Animals left their homes, driving to work to beat traffic, or rushing to take their kids to school before the bell rang. At the heart of the city, the final pieces of the country's symbol of freedom and opportunity were being fitted into place.

People roamed the streets, heading down towards to catch the morning subway, or heading down to Central Park for a picnic, enjoying the fresh and welcoming air. The trees kept most of the noise pollution of the city. The cool breeze eased the muscles and the soft grass released stress.

In the suburbs, a female otter is flipping through the channels, trying to find something to watch that didn't try to eradicate her brain cells. The mornings always lacked in television broadcasting. They always played programs for toddlers or showed re-runs of old shows that no one even remotely remembers about.

"Is there anything good nowadays?" Marlene inquired, hanging her head over the head rest of the wooden chair. Her right arm dangled with the remote, she had to remind herself not to drop the thing.

"Not that I know of. All they show nowadays are shows of half-naked people running around causing drama. How that's television, still baffles me." Skipper answered, flipping a pancake.

The smell of the pastry entered the nose of the otter, causing her stomach to grumble with hunger, quietly yelling at the penguin to hurry the hell up. She always bought her breakfast from the local McDonald's, but Private insisted that she should come over and have breakfast with them. Though, the little officer wasn't present. Neither were the other penguins. "Hey, where is everybody? Weren't we supposed to have breakfast together?" Marlene inquired, searching the large living room.

"Rico's holding the fort at the moment and Kowalski is on patrol." Skipper answered. His answer sounded so robotic, Marlene had to cover her mouth not daring to question if he really was a robot.

"And Private?" the otter asked.

"He's with Rico filling out the large piles of paperwork back in his office at the HQ." Skipper answered, turning off the stove. "I told him that breakfast together is nearly impossible. We're on such a busy schedule; we can't even have breakfast by ourselves. We don't see each other until late at night. Even then, we're still working. We got this house to get us to start doing something that doesn't involve putting handcuffs on a drunk." Skipper sighed.

Marlene's eyes met the ground. "Do they like it?" she asked.

"Of course. The place has a basement and an attic. We know that the attic's full of spiders, so Private going up there is not an option. The basement will serve as Kowalski's lab. Much better than having it in the garage, all crammed. Rico's using the backyard for weapon training and other stuff Rico does. Just being able to say we own our own backyard makes me relieved."

"You know that's not what I was asking about." Marlene said sternly.

Skipper lowered his head and placed both flippers on the granite counter. He sighed, "This is necessary. We need this place. That apartment wasn't doing us any good, especially with the rent. A 'hellhole' Kowalski once called it. Wherever we go, our work follows us. There are eleven million people living in this city. Crime's always alert and waiting to strike. And with a city like this, you'll never catch a break. Maintaining your relationship with your team while also trying to maintain an entire city can have its toll. I'm sure they know the gravity of the situation."

Marlene couldn't help but to feel for her flightless friends. They're struggling, and she can see it. Her only choice left was to steer away from the topic. "So, your guys aren't coming, but you're the one who's here. Why's that?" Marlene inquired.

"I didn't want to disappoint you. I mean, you were bugging us for a tour of the new house." Skipper replied with a smile.

"Still waiting on that tour. But in all seriousness, why are you really here?" Marlene asked.

"The HQ figured I should have a day off."

"And you agreed to that?" Marlene scoffed.

"I only took the morning off. They'll have to put up with my face in the afternoon." Skipper smiled.

She turned her head towards the small TV and pressed the **CH+** button. "You have this huge house, yet you have the world's smallest television." Marlene commented.

"The boys don't even use the damn thing. They're not as addicted as you." Skipper replied.

"I'm not addicted." Marlene raised a brow.

"Says the girl who asked me what's good on TV." Skipper replied.

"Stalemate." The otter proclaimed.

After pressing the **CH+** button a few more times, she landed on The Weather Channel. The red header read: **Lowest Temperatures of the Century Expected**. At that moment, the winds outside picked up. Her spine shivered at the thought of the cold. She became so transfixed on the television screen that she jumped when Skipper placed her plate on the table.

"Heh, 'not a TV addict' are you?" Skipper joked.

"No, not that," She turned her attention to the TV, "are you seeing this?" she turned up the volume.

"Temperatures in Northern New York have reached an all-time record low at just fifteen degrees Fahrenheit." The weatherman announced.

"Fifteen?!" the otter exclaimed.

"That's what the man said. Mind changing it to Chuck Charles?" the flat-headed penguin asked.

"Didn't you hear him? Fifteen degrees! We might as well go ice fishing over at Central Park!" the otter scoffed.

"Marlene, it gets like this every year. The media is just getting in your head." Skipper replied, getting up to grab his cup of jo from the grunting coffee machine.

"Are you sure?"

"I'm pretty sure."

"But what if-"

The leader groaned, shaking his head. "I'm joking." Marlene smiled, shutting off the television right when the weather reporter cut to Albany.

At that moment, the doorknob rattled. The door unlocked and a young being waddled inside. Private placed the keys on the window sill, turning to see the two others in the house. "Oh dear, for a second there, I thought you two were robbers!" Private giggled, closing the door.

"What are you doing here so early? Is everything okay?" Skipper began worrying.

"The HQ is just a tad bit busier than usual. I'm just guessing that Friday is to blame. I'm here because I left a file here that I need for a good pile's worth of paperwork… and also thought my flipper could use a break." The young penguin smiled.

"How bad is it?" Skipper asked. He could already imagine the chaos happening over there. They needed him over. They can't do their job all by themselves. Why the hell did he agree to take the morning off? One lousy morning and everything's already gone to shit.

"Not from here, Skipper. From Albany." Private assured.

"Albany? What's Albany paging New York for?" Skipper asked, raising a brow and placing a flippers on his hip. His signature pose.

"They're saying that there's riots over at Albany. We can't get through and the news is not very helpful." Private answered.

"I should be over there. It was stupid of me not to attend." Skipper said turning to turn off the coffee maker, but realized that it was still pouring the dark, bitter liquid. "Maybe until this thing finishes." Skipper said.

"I wonder what's going on over there. I hope it's not really riots." Marlene asked nervously. She was worried of course. The thought of what Skipper told her crept through her mind. The media. That helped her not to think of it as much. But she still had that feeling.

"I don't think it is. Maybe it's just a mix-up of some sort. The boys over in Albany always tend to confuse things. They once confused a little girl's birthday party for a meth kitchen." Skipper commented. "Go get what you need and then we'll go look for Kowalski and sort this thing out." The leader ordered, taking a sip of his coffee.

"Aye, Skippah!" the young penguin saluted and ran off towards the bedrooms.

Private waddled down the corridor. As he walked, he turned to his left and looked at the unfinished painted wall. It's been a long time since they ever got started. So long that he couldn't even remember what color they were painting with. It was either starting to turn a dark blue, or finishing with white. Most of the house was white but that doesn't mean that the house was originally that color. Or was it? He couldn't put his flipper on it. "Did you find them yet?" Skipper's voice echoed throughout the hall.

"Still looking." Private responded not moving his eyes off the wall. He liked the dark blue better; he would have to decide which color paint he should buy later. He took one last look at the strokes on the wall and waddled to the office space that they had.

He opened the door revealing what was inside. Piles and piles of papers were scattered on the tiled floor. Pens without caps on them lay on the cold desks. He sighed. Cleaning this place hadn't crossed their minds. It was never thought of as an actual room. Just a working area. There were four wooden desks in each corner on the room. Cardboard boxes full of folders and documents reached the rim, nearly toppling over and falling on the floor.

When they worked in here, they didn't really talk to each other. Just come in, get your files or finish your days' worth of paper work, suffer from the headaches they gave you, and get out. He had not really stopped and really gave this place some thought. Except from the splitting headaches he would get from this room. Just the sight of this place made his head throb.

He waddled over to his desk. The top was covered by packages of pens and papers. A blue striped box was placed on the top left corner of his desk. Sadly, he was a bit too short to look inside the box. He tiptoed, peering inside to see if the papers are in there. Shuffling through the files and crumpled up notes. They never really kept things organized.

So many thoughts were suddenly passing through his mind. The walls, this room, what's next? Him questioning what's in everything that he ate? Come to think of it, he couldn't really remember when was the last time he ate something. Let alone with his friends. He just tried to shut everything off and focused on the task at hand. Or flipper.

After about a few seconds of searching, he found the file he was looking for. He opened the file to make sure. The date, the location, the offense. This was it.

He placed the file under his pit when something caught his attention He took a closer look. Inside the striped box, laid an open file. Some of the pages had slid out, fusing with the other papers. Thankfully the sheets had slid in a pattern making it easy to identify which ones belonged with each other. Private placed the file down on the desk.

He finds a picture of a young girl. **MISSING** was typed underneath the photo. The girl was about twelve years of age. The text read: **Kallie Leeds**. She went missing at a late afternoon when her mother said she did not return home. The sad truth, Kallie was a runaway. She would sell herself to grown men. Just the thought of it caused his stomach to churn. Sick. The case turned from a simple girl going missing to a series of mass murders.

He shut the file, not wanting to remember the cold, haunting memories of the case. The atmosphere was choking and evil. Pure evil. "He would go for the little ones" they said. "The ones that would go without a care in the world." But with this specific girl, he messed with the wrong one. She was one out of twenty-three. Sadly, no one ever missed them. Skipper had to keep him out of this case because of how dark it was.

He sighed. Skipper's voice interrupted his thoughts. "Private! Rico's going to need the files on his desk!" his voice echoed.

"On it!" Private answered. He whisked the file from his desk and waddled towards the stack of old cardboard boxes.

Skipper opened the door for the otter, while grabbing the keys Private left on the window sill. The otter stepped out towards the open air. The air had gotten colder the last time she was out here, which was only about thirty minutes. She couldn't keep the thought of winter out of her mind. Private followed with the boxes.

Skipper witnessed the young penguin struggling, "Here, let me help you with that." The leader offered, grabbing one of the boxes.

Private felt a tremendous amount of weight being released from his flippers. His spine no longer ached, and his lungs were able to fully expand. He let out a long sigh of relief. "Oy, thank you, Skippah. I don't know how much longer I had if had continued," Private thanked, waddling down the concrete steps of the front door.

"Hope you enjoyed breakfast," Skipper called out.

The otter spun her head, "Oh, yeah. Thank you for that. I really needed an excuse to get out of the house." Marlene smiled, crossing her arms.

"Oh, I completely forgot about that!" Private exclaimed. "I'm so sorry, Marlene." The young penguin apologized. Under his feathers, his face grew bright red from embarrassment.

"Don't worry, Private." She looked at Skipper, "I know how busy you guys are."

The leader kept packing the trunk of his vehicle. "Is that everything?" the leader asked, not taking his eyes away from the inside of the car.

"That's everything, Skippah." Private turned to the young otter. "Ya know… maybe we all can spend this weekend together? How about a movie? I've heard around the HQ that that new Lunacorns movie is amazing…" The young penguin murmured.

"You didn't just hear that from Jackson's kids?" Skipper asked, raising a brow.

Private lowered his head, "No…" he replied under his breath.

"I'll see what we can do," the otter replied. "I'd really like to get out of my house for once." she sighed.

Private's smile intensified. Skipper had already climbed inside the car, quickly shutting the door. His stern look turned solemn whilst inside. "We'll see you soon, Marlene. Take care!" the young penguin waved goodbye as he climbed inside the passenger's side. Skipper quickly turned the engine over. The car coughed, clearing its lungs before fully functioning. The leader stepped on the pedal and the two were off towards their destination.

Marlene's forced smile faded. She began walking down the sidewalk down to her house. The cool air was gnawing at her. The wind was a bit slower than before. She glanced at the lawns of the surrounding houses of the neighborhood. They were all coated with a variety of different colored leaves. Piles here and there. Shades of red and orange in between piles. Purples and greens if she was lucky.

The trees began stripping themselves of their leaves. More and more slowly drifted with the freezing wind, piling up on lawns, giving the neighbors more of a headache. The road suffered as well.

The golden drop of warmth was shining at its brightest. Its warm rays, warmed everything it touched, but it didn't do much. The winds were still chilling. The air was still biting at her. Yet, the leader said otherwise. It felt as if she had left one of her paws out in the freezing air for too long, the skin underneath her fur would most definitely go numb. Her fur did help, but not by much. If it weren't for her fur, she might have just gone through frostbite.

But, the colors of nature were trying to take her mind off of the cold. It almost worked. But the pyrexia of nature was taking over.

* * *

**Atlanta University, Atlanta, Georgia**

"Mass extinction," a professor's voice boomed. "It's probably the reason you're all here."

The dark college classroom was illuminated by the projector that showcased an image of ancient Earth. Laptops with glowing iconic apples filled the room. Not that many students were present. Most of them were out sick with the flu.

"A mass extinction, also known as an extinction event, is when the global population of animals suddenly decreases. The term mass extinction is only used when fifty percent of the species of the planet goes extinct. There have been five mass extinctions in Earth's four point six billion year history. All of which have happened in the past four hundred and fifty years." the professor explained while the entire class tried very hard to keep up typing all of the information down.

"The first mass extinction happened four hundred and fifty million years ago when all life on Earth was in the oceans. This was classified as the Ordovician-Silurian mass extinction event. During the next ten million years, we see two major die-offs. Both of which involve the sudden influx of glaciers and dramatic worldwide falls in sea levels. One of the theories that explain this particular mass extinction event is when Gondwana shifted into the southern polar region. This set off a huge drop in temperature and set off a huge increase in glacial formation which drastically dropped sea levels." the professor continued.

"Now, I hope you people know how to spell, marine invertebrates were hit the hardest with two-thirds of all the brachiopods, bivalves, trilobites, and bryozoan families disappeared. Now, the other and most fascinating theory of what may have caused the Ordovician-Silurian mass extinction is, and I'm not making this up, a gamma ray burst from a hypernova somewhere within six thousand light years away smacked the Earth's ozone layer off the planet and our precious atmosphere was left to drift off into space. Twenty-seven percent of all marine families and sixty percent of all marine genera went extinct." the professor clicked a button on his small remote which caused the next slide to roll in.

"Moving on, we jump ahead one hundred million to three hundred and sixty million years ago to the late Devonian extinction. A series of prolonged mass extinctions will occur during this second mass extinction in which half of all genera and seventy percent of all species will die off. Marine life will once again be hit very hard but so will spiders and the scorpions and the pro amphibians which are just taking their first steps out on the land. There were a series of extinction pulses, each lasting a hundred thousand years. Gamma ray bursts are suspected here, but once again, global drop-offs offs in temperatures are believed to be to blame. Scientists today aren't sure what caused it, probably either an asteroid impact or a giant super volcano. Each of those things would have released massive amounts of ash and debris into the atmosphere, drastically changing the climate. Glaciers once again probably inundated Gondwana, but we also know that ocean levels fell and lost most of their oxygen in the process in what's called _ocean anoxia._ Some believe the temperatures in the steaming season of the Devonian period fell from ninety-three to about seventy-eight degrees. Coral reefs were hit so hard that it would be a hundred million years before they recovered, but there's another interesting theory here and that's that plants which were for the first time really taking hold on land were observing so much carbon dioxide from the atmosphere that they actually cause global cooling. So in fact plants were responsible for that mass extinction event, those damn plants." the professor joked.

"Now onto the biggest mass extinction event in history, the Permian-Triassic extinction event, also known as the 'Great Dying'. It is now about two hundred and fifty million years ago and a combination of catastrophic events are about to completely alter life on planet Earth. This may have been triggered by a comet or asteroid impact but what scientists feel fairly certain about is that a subsequent volcanic eruption in an area known as the Siberian traps was responsible for an increase in global temperatures up five to ten degrees. These volcanic eruptions covered an area roughly the size of Western Europe and they blasted for a million years. As if the planet wasn't doomed enough, sudden releases of gas from methane hydrate reservoirs below the seafloor, possibly caused by underwater volcanic activity, decimated the seas and leaded to periods of too much oxygen called _hyperoxia_ and too little oxygen, the return of _anoxia_. By the end of it all, fifty-three percent of marine families, eighty-four percent of marine genera, seventy percent of land species, and ninety-five percent of marine species were extinct." the room became quiet. Not even the sounds of clicking keys on the keyboard were audible. All this talk of death made the atmosphere heavy.

One particular student didn't like this topic. He was a fruit bat and was nineteen years of age. He knew it was coming, but he didn't want to hear all this talk of death. The fact that the world population was nearly killed off five times really made him depressed.

"The Permian-Triassic extinction had an enormous evolutionary effect. It would be more than thirty million years until before vertebrates and the Earth in general would recover. Which, it did recover… until two hundred million years ago when the Triassic-Jurassic extinction killed off many early land animals. This includes the deaths of most of the therapsids, large amphibians, and the archosaurs, paving away for the age of the dinosaurs. No one knows what caused this mass extinction, but what is known is that twenty-three percent of families and forty-eight percent of genera went extinct, leaving plants and the dinosaurs untouched."

"Now on to the very last and most famous mass extinction, the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction, about sixty-five million years ago. This was roughly the time when the massive supercontinent known as Pangea was breaking apart due to volcanic eruptions. The massive amounts of carbon dioxide from those eruptions may have caused some intense global warming. This extinction was also probably caused by an asteroid impact on the coast of the Yucatan peninsula which killed off all the non-avian dinosaurs and ushered in the glorious age of mammals and birds. The K-T extinction, as it's also known, killed off half of all genera and seventy-five percent of species." the professor turned off the projector.

"And that, ladies and gentlemen, brings us to today, where ninety-nine percent of the species that have ever existed on this planet are now extinct." the lights flashed on, sending painful photons into the student's eyes.

The nineteen-year-old fruit bat shot his hand up in the air.

"Yes, Erik?" the professor inquired.

"When do you think the next mass extinction event will occur?" the fruit bat inquired.

The elderly professor took his large glasses off of his face to clean the grease off of the lenses. "Well, I believe we are in the middle of one now. It already has a name and is called the Holocene extinction. We're currently experiencing the worst spate of species die-offs since the loss of the dinosaurs sixty-five million years ago, and it's moving at a rate faster than any other extinction event. Over nineteen thousand species of plants and animals are facing extinction. These extinctions are caused by rising CO2 levels, habitat destruction, invasive species, pollution, and over-harvesting." the professor placed his glasses back on.

"A normal extinction rate on our planet is about ten to twenty-five species per year and we're already doing about a hundred to one thousand times that, so several billion of us are having a big impact on our planet. It could be another ten to a hundred years before we start to see the full force of mass extinction in the future. Now, it's important to teach you all of this information because you all will be the ones who will have to find a solution for this. Though, mass extinctions cannot be stopped and are inevitable, don't blame yourself if you didn't do anything to stop It." the professor smiled.

Erik sat back on his chair. The class intercom sounded, "Attention students, due to lack of students and staff, we have ordered a half-day. Students and staff are advised to go home. Have a pleasant weekend and we will see you all next week, Panthers!" that was the principle.

Without hesitating, the students leaped off of their chairs and began packing. "I'll post this PowerPoint online, study this for your upcoming final exam next week!" the professor yelled at his students.

The fruit bat shut his computer closed, shoved the device into his backpack and ran out the door, dodging everyone in his path. Down the main hall, made a sharp right and ran into the boy's bathroom. He ran into one of the stalls and vomited. His abdomen felt like someone had punched his stomach repeatedly. He felt lightheaded and his short legs trembled. The front door opened.

"You're sick too?" a vampire bat inquired.

The fruit bat sniffled, already feeling better. "No, I just had to listen to my professor basically tell me that we're all going to die." Erik replied. Streaks of saliva hanged from his mouth.

The vampire bat leaned over to the bat and placed one of her paws on Erik's shoulder and began rubbing the fruit bat's side, which sent chills across Erik's body. "Frankie and Addison are sick. They look terrible, even more than usual. Raymond and Tanya are still working at that elementary school. Kyle and Naomi are planning to go to Savannah for the weekend, but I'm trying to change their minds about that trip."

Erik flushed the toilet. "Why's that?" the bat inquired.

"Too many people are sick. This isn't any ordinary flu season, and now we get a half-day? A category three hurricane could be shitting on us and they still wouldn't let us go. Something about this doesn't feel right. I just want to stay here for the weekend." the vampire bat suggested in a pouty voice.

The fruit bat turned to his girlfriend, "I'm fine with that, Kelsi" the fruit bat tried to flash a smile.

Kelsi backed away, "God your breath." she covered her snout.

"Oh, you don't like my breath? I'm soooohhrry, I didn't nooooooohtice." the fruit bat mocked.

"I swear if you—"

The fruit bat wrapped his wings around Kelsi. "Give me a kiss why don't you?"

"Go back to sticking your face in the toilet before I actually have to smack you!" that's she felt his stomach grumble. "Round two?" she inquired.

"Mmm-hmm." Erik replied before running back to the stall.

* * *

**Twin Peaks Memorial Elementary School, Atlanta, Georgia**

It was just about thirty minutes since the bell rang for the surprise half-day was announced in elementary school. The school had a rough past facing bomb threats, suicides, and shootings. It was the oldest school in the Atlanta district, about sixty-fire years old. The school was made of pasty-yellow brick walls, black support poles, and a wooden roof.

When you entered through the front of the school, you were greeted by the front desk to your left. A few steps forward, the principal's office to your right. Another few feet, the assistant principal's office. Further ahead to your left, the supply room full of printers, packets of Xerox paper, and large spindles of construction paper for big group projects. To your right, the nurse's office; the place every kid with a stomach ache visited, wanting to go home.

Once out the doors of the front office, you were greeted by a vegetated courtyard. Stone tables and seats were scattered everywhere adding to about six or seven, maybe eight. Trees were slowly taking over the courtyard but no one seemed to care. The school halls didn't have walls, only a wooden roof and paint chipping poles.

Facing the courtyard, you could either go to the right or to the left. Left of the main corridor was the school cafeteria; to the left, classrooms. Looking part the courtyard, you could see the new building and the school bus station and car pickup. Past the cafeteria, the gym. Beyond that, the playground which was essential.

A police officer walked down the halls of the new building, the only real building in the school beside the front office. It only had about five classrooms. The back of the building was connected to the car pick up section, making it easier for kids to leave safely with their parents.

The police officer had a walkie-talkie in one paw as he walked down the air conditioned hallway of the building. A kid had gone into hiding when the bell rang. The half-day really messed with the kid's schedule. His mother doesn't get out of work until three-thirty. It was barely twelve.

A voice escaped the walkie-talkie, "You find him yet?" a female voice inquired.

The lemur lifted the device, making his large bicep extrude, "Not yet," his light Russian accent shined through. Being born in the mother country and raised there for about five years left an imprint in his accent. Once his family moved to the states, his accent began dancing with the southern twang of the South. The woman speaking through the walkie-talkie was also from Russian descent.

"I've got nothing on the security system." the female lemur replied.

"I'm starting to think that he's already miles away from this place." the male lemur joked.

"The kid's eight. He's got nowhere to go but go into hiding."

Raymond turned around, looking at the dimly lit tiled hallway before leaving. "Two professional body guards let an eight-year-old slip through their fingers." Raymond sighed.

"This is defiantly going to be on our record." the female lemur rubbed her temples.

The lemur scanned the area. The nearby boy's restroom caught his attention. "I'm going to go dark for a second, Tanya." Raymond informed.

"Tell me when you find him." Tanya replied.

Raymond placed his walkie-talkie in his belt. He quietly walked towards the boy's restroom, which fortunately had no door. He stepped inside the windowless septic tank smelling room. He held his nose and watched his step for any waste. Elementary school bathrooms are famous for these little 'presents' left by the young students.

He crept for the last stall. He slowly opened the door. Nothing. Not even unspeakable horrors of the beyond. Raymond faced the exit. He reached for his walkie, "Thought I found him, but no luck."

"Hey, I just got a text from Kyle; he said that they're on a half-day too." Tanya informed.

"And what, they want a ride or something?" Raymond inquired sarcastically. He walked towards the car pickup/bus stop area. He looked around the open area that was surrounded by a chain-link fence, still no sign of the child.

Raymond walked towards the front entrance. He looked to his right, nothing; to his left, the playground and apartments. He was about to leave when he noticed a dark figure stumbling across the road. His pace was slow and his back was hunched.

The lemur reached for the swing gate and sealed off the entrance to the school. _Fucking drunks_. Raymond thought to himself.

"What did you want me to tell him?" Tanya inquired.

"Tell them that we can't pick them up until four." Raymond replied, not taking his eyes off the shadow figure.

"They're going to be so pissed." Tanya giggled.

"Well, that's on them for not getting their own car." Raymond said, leaving the area.

"Your van has been through literal hell, I have no idea how you've managed to keep that thing alive." Tanya joked.

"Well, our ancestors have faced many global die-offs and they lived for sixty-five million years."

"Like your van."

The silence Raymond gave off made Tanya laugh.

* * *

**Radiology Room, New York-Presbyterian/Queens Hospital, Queens County, New York**

A group of doctors looked and studied the x-rays of a patient's cranial cavity. Inside, translucent grey matter that was the brain, and a bright white mass that invaded both sides of the brain. A rare and life threatening little thing and to top it all off, it's inoperable. Well, that's what the other neurosurgeons who didn't want to get near this thing said.

"The patient has a Grade IV Astrocytoma that extends into both sides of the brain." a neurosurgeon informed his interns. "It's spread out through the corpus callosum, or the broad band of nerve fibers joining the two hemispheres of the brain, like smoke." the surgeon explained.

He pointed at another x-ray of the patient's brain. "Now, the M.R.A. shows us how exactly this brain tumor invades that brain. The way it spreads into both hemispheres, its shape, everything. They don't call it the 'butterfly tumor' for nothing. A patient with a Grade IV Astrocytoma usually dies within six months. There have been a hand full of cases of these tumors and only one-twelfths of them have been successful in operation. Mortality rate during surgery is sixty-seven percent." the surgeon explained. His students were still writing down every single word he was saying.

He narrowed his eyes. "There's a chance the patient could hemorrhage and bleed out on the table, the patient could have a stroke, the patient could become paralyzed, the patient could have permanent motor control defects, and most importantly, the patient could die. Now with all of these possibilities, how do I proceed in removing this inoperable tumor?" the neurosurgeon asked his fellow drones.

Silence. No one answered. Then a hand shot straight up. "Yes, Madeline?"

"Well, the M.R.A. shows that the tumor is situated in the frontal lobe, which leaves an opening. You could go under the pericallosal vessels and attack the tumor on both sides." the intern answered.

The head of neuro smiled. "That's exactly what I plan to do. The operation is scheduled at two; I want you to scrub in."

Madeline smiled. "That's it for this lesson; go on to your next rotation." the neurosurgeon ordered.

A tall penguin poked his head into the room as the interns flowed out of the radiology room. "Tumor?" the penguin inquired.

"Kowalski. I expect Stetson is with you?"

"I'm practically married to the guy. So what does this patient suffer from?" Kowalski inquired.

"Butterfly tumor, inoperable. Just my kind of surgery." the surgeon answered.

"I only know the basics of medicine, you mind explaining what your course of action is?" Kowalski inquired, slowly walking up to the beautiful pieces of artwork that were displayed.

"Well, the tumor seems smooth enough for me to cut around and remove. If it was class V, I would have to implant radiation seeds in his skull to prevent the tumor from growing. It's a beauty isn't it?" the doctor smiled.

"It's magnificent, Dr. Garner." Kowalski smiled. "I should probably go now; I just wanted to see this. When's the surgery?" Kowalski inquired.

"Two," the lights started flickering.

"Let me know what happened, should be an interesting story to tell back at headquarters." Kowalski said, leaving the room.

* * *

 **Emergency Room,** **New York-Presbyterian/Queens Hospital, Queens County, New York**

"Has anyone seen Frank Greens' chart?" a doctor inquired shifting through the mass pile of medical files.

"Patients in beds four, six and seven all need acetaminophen; we need to get those fevers down." another doctor exclaimed, wrapping her stethoscope around her neck.

"Right away, doctor." a nurse replied, running off to the medicine cabinet.

"The kid in bed eight just vomited his prescription; his body is rejecting the meds. And patients in beds one, two and three need ibuprofen, the kid in bed nine needs his mommy and the kid in fifteen won't stop trying to escape from this place. Now if I was him, running away would be an excellent idea right now." a male nurse proclaimed, handing in his charts to a nurse.

A doctor rubbed her temples. _Too many people crowding this place_. "We're what, two doctors, three nurses and twenty-six patients in here? This isn't enough, we need more people down here." the doctor sighed.

A nurse got off the phone, "We've just got word that a car swerved off into traffic, dozens of traumas."

The doctor thought for a second, "Alright, let's get the people who aren't in critical condition discharged and send patients with the flu to Lincoln Medical, we need these beds for the incoming injuries!" the doctor by the name of Emily ordered.

The hospital was just outside the city. Its E.R. was flooded with sick patients reporting high fever, chills, numbness, weakness, nausea. This flu season seemed to be showing no mercy. Nurses could barely keep up with the infected. They've sealed off the E.R. from the rest of the hospital, keeping the sick away from the uninfected patients. Hoarse coughing and the sounds of sniffling plagued the space, the same sounds we've all known to hear when taking a school exam. The board ordered every personnel to wear face masks to keep the flu from spreading. The hospital was running out of beds for the oncoming patients. They never stopped pouring out of the double doors.

They couldn't go through the front doors; they'd risk infecting the healthy in the waiting rooms and the lobby. A hospital is a breeding ground for the spread of diseases. Too many people in a building filled with sick people.

"We tried that an hour ago, they're flooded as well!" a nurse yelled from across the emergency room.

"What about Queens?"

"They're overflowing with patients too. I just got off the phone with them; they thought they could just dump all of their people here. We've already got too many people coming in here, we need more space!" a nurse yelled in frustration.

"Why don't we just put all the healthy patients in one place?" a voice crept out from all the overlapping conversations.

Emily turned, only to see her boss inside the E.R., "Dr. Jones, what are you doing here?" Emily inquired.

"I rushed over here when I heard. We put all the healthy patients in each floor in one place. That way, we can keep an eye on all of them and have enough beds for the infected and for the incoming traumas." Dr. Jones pitched the idea.

Emily paused, "We can't put all of them in one place together," she shook her head.

"No, he's right. Stable ones can walk and we've got wheelchairs. Let's do it." a female doctor rushed to the front desk and grabbed a face mask before heading into the surgical floor of the hospital.

"You've heard the chief, let's go!" the male doctor exclaimed, grabbing medicals charts from the pile of charts.

Emily turned to her boss, "Are you sure about this?" she asked.

The Chief of Surgery nodded, "It's the best we can do to contain whatever this is."

Emily lowered he head and nodded. The yells of the incoming traumas made her jump.

"Jose Jimenez, multiple lacerations in the abdomen and the extremities. He's lost a lot of blood and won't stop screaming." a surgical doctor yelled over the screams of the young man in agony.

The sounds of a coding patient monitor alarmed the entire emergency room. Emily ran to the coding patient. "GET A CRASH CART IN HERE, NOW!" she barked as she began to lower the patient's bed.

"Starting chest compressions." Emily proclaimed as she began to place her paws on the patient's chest and pushed.

"Crash cart!" a nurse yelled.

Emily grabbed the AED pads from the cart and placed them on the patient's chest. "Charge to one-fifty." she ordered as she grabbed the paddles.

"Clear!" she yelled. The patient's body jolted as the shock of electricity flowed through his body. "Charge to two-fifty... Clear!" The patient jolted. Still nothing. "Charge to three hundred… Clear!" Nothing.

Emily's face turned grim. The patient monitor flat lined. "He's gone. We need to get him off this floor NOW." Emily yelled as they pushed the bed out from the rest of the beds and off to the lower floor.

"Emily?" a voice called.

Emily turned, a police officer stood in the middle of the E.R.

"Don't stop, get this patient down now!" Emily ordered, "Stet? What are you doing here?" the doctor inquired.

"I like to see my wife once and a while. What happened?" Stet inquired.

"You need to get out of here, it's not safe. These people are infected with the flu—"

"Who codes with the flu?" Stet questioned.

"I've got patients to attend to, I need… I need to go. And listen to me, stay away from anyone who coughs." Emily warned her husband as she left the E.R.

The Brown Thrasher was left with apprehension. What's wrong with her? He thought. An elderly man coughed next to the officer.

 _Static_.

"We've got a four one five between Park Avenue and East forty-fifth Street…" Stet turned to the older man with the coughing fit.

"…notifying Forensics immediately," the coughing stopped. The look on the elderly man's face when he looked at his own paw sent shivers down the officer's spine. "…requesting a Code Nine, I repeat, a Code Nine. We need these people off the streets." the officer informed.

 _Static_.

With the information he heard and what he witnessed, the bird rushed out of the emergency room. Something really bad is happening… the bird thought as he climbed inside his vehicle.

His partner turned to him. "Did you hear? They're closing Park and Forty-fifth." the penguin informed.

Stet paused, "You're a scientist, what are the chances of dying from the flu?" the bird inquired.

"With current vaccinations aiding to prevent cases and ease the severity of influenza, I'd say about five percent. Why do you ask?" the penguin inquired.

Stet shook his head, "Emily. She told me to stay away from anyone who coughs." Stet answered.

"Well, she is a resident; she's most likely concerned about the spread of influenza… and you of course."

"The look on her face… she looked mortified about what she knows."

The penguin raised a brow, "What does she know?" his partner asked.

"That's the thing. She would usually tell me a thousand reasons not to do something, but she just told me that one thing. I don't think she knows what's going on, Kowalski…"

This made the penguin feel concerned. Something felt off about this situation. "Let's head back to HQ, we can gather up supplies for the four one five. Then we can start to fathom ideas onto what's happening, no need to start panicking." Kowalski suggested.

Stet nodded. He still couldn't shake the feeling that something bad was going to happen.


	2. Not Fade Away: Part Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Towards the end of the chapter, start listening to 'Carrion Flowers' by Chelsea Wolfe. It really suits the atmosphere.

**New York City, New York**

Skipper's vehicle sped passed by the brightly painted houses that stretched across the road ahead of them. The city skyline peeked over the roofs, giving an empowering feel of the megalopolis. Each house was constructed to withstand hurricane winds, if they even made their way up to New York. Most of them still stood when Sandy hit. It had been two years since that storm tore up the city. Back then, the penguins had an apartment when the storm hit.

The storm had taken out the lights and in the shape of how the apartment was in (not very good), the group of officers hid in their one closet, which was small. Private was cowering in the corner in the dark, when Skipper approached him, comforting him. He kept telling him that it was just a storm, that nothing could ever hurt him because he was with friends. People have always been saying that Skipper was like some sort of father figure towards Private. Skipper always denied it, saying that they're a band of brothers that would do anything for each other to keep the other safe. That saying would haunt him in the future.

A band of brothers. Skipper took his eyes off of Private and focused them on the road ahead of them. The duo was closing'' in on the Brooklyn Bridge. The city skyline reflected the sun's rays, making the city appear sort of heaven-esque, like something straight out of the movies. The towering concrete structures gave out a vast sensation of power. Making it feel as if New York City was the capital of the world. Though, Skipper always did call it that way. The construction of the World Trade Center continued in the distance. That made Skipper smile. He couldn't wait to take the boys over when it's finished.

The penguins began their ascent over the Gothic-constructed Bridge. The spider web made of steel cables strung from tower to tower always fascinated Private. How steel rods could hold up an entire bridge made out bricks always itched at the back of his mind.

They now entered into the noise pollution of the city. The honking of cars, the sirens of police cars, and the screeching halts of buses. Private took his eyes off of the spider web like pattern of wires to the river that was beneath them, in the distance. The sight of the turquoise river always made him smile. Though Kowalski had once told him that the rivers were cesspools full of fecal matter and chemical waste from nearby factories, it still wouldn't erase the smile off of his face. He loved nature. That's why he would always take strolls inside Central Park whenever he had the chance. The turquoise water reflected the sun's rays back at him. He knew that the river had more chemicals than it had water. Hell, you could probably find most of the elements if you just took a sample of the "acidic" water. He then took his attention towards the city itself.

Skyscrapers as far as the eye can see. The amazing architecture was aesthetic. As they neared the city, the more the sun danced 'on each glass panel, creating rainbows. The young penguin could just stare at the city forever, but his state of awe was cut short when they were finally off the bridge and were now in the vicinity of the city itself. Private would always drift off when crossing the bridge.

Inside the city, street lights are your natural enemies. They can vary from lasting hours on 'red' to lasting milliseconds on 'green'. The team probably wasted most of their lives waiting in the streets than doing something productive. People always seem to find ways to start traffic jams and also find ways to cut you off completely. Bike lanes are merely non-existent to most New Yorkers, just some extra space to cut people off. Typical.

They drove through the bustling streets of the city, passing major corporate offices and popular restaurants. The young penguin glanced at the clock that was mounted on the dashboard. Private then decided to turn on the radio, wanting to hear the morning news from his favorite reporter: Chuck Charles.

He switched trough the channels, looking for the right one. Quickly changing the channel if it was a music station, knowing Skipper had a bitter opinion on the 'modern' side of the music industry. The car came to a halt when they came up on a red light. Private kept turning the dial on the radio.

"Private," Skipper began, "you know our schedules are tight. Don't get your hopes up; you know what happened last time."

"I just thought we all could use a break, considering how hard we work. Especially you, Skippah." Private smiled, still turning the dial.

"You are very well in the know that crime never stops in a city like this." Skipper said sternly.'

"That's why we have a team; you can't take on the entire city by yourself. We work together; as a team." Private kept insisting.

"A team only functions when the entire team is working hard together, not when it's important players are away, goofing off, doing nothing." Skipper stepped on the gas as the light turned green. Skipper turned to the young penguin that had his eyes darted on the floor matt.

The leader sighed, "Listen, I did what my team thought was best for me. I tried. Imagine you being me, the busiest man alive, doing nothing while his brothers are outside, risking their lives and fighting criminals. I tried doing nothing and I've got to say, it was horrible. Taking breaks… it's just no me. I need to be there. I'll lose my mind if I'm away from my team doing nothing." the leader explained.

Private hung on to every word. "Aye, Skippah," the young penguin looked out the window. Life was buzzing past him.

* * *

**Atlanta University, Atlanta, Georgia**

The sun was just over the state of Georgia. Dark clouds were slowly rolling in in the distance. A group of college friends sat by a marble statue that represented the founding of the college. There were other small groups of students hanging around the front of the school, most of which weren't even communicating, just texting on their electronic devices.

"I sent Tanya the text, apparently some kid got lost and they're trying to look for him." a grey wolf informed his friends.

"How long until they actually get here?" Kelsi inquired who was wrapped in her boyfriend's wings.

"An hour or two." The wolf informed.

"What about Mia? Can she pick us up?" Kelsi inquired.

Erik checked his watch. "It's barely twelve. She gets out of work at three. That is unless they have half-days where she works at." the fruit bat said.

"Where's Naomi, Kyle? Has she dumped you yet?" Kelsi teased.

"She's at the library. Apparently she decided to stay here and study instead of going to Savannah. And we're still going strong by the way." Kyle replied.

"Wow, she picked shoving her face in a book than to go half-naked with you to the beach. That's a cry for help, my friend." Kelsi laughed.

"She actually cares about passing her classes other than some people; not including me." Kyle replied.

"They're just basics. I really don't know why people are making such a big deal about them. I barely put any effort and I somehow leave the class with a passing grade. Guess I'm one of the lucky ones." the vampire bat cocked her head.

"And that's why everyone hates you." Erik added.

"It's not my fault I was born with this gift." Kelsi boasted.

"Should we go check on her?" Kyle inquired. "Maybe we can convince her to not spend her fifth weekend in a row not existing five feet away from a book?"

"Anything to get out of this heat; I know fall is coming, but damn, it's boiling out." Kelsi agreed.

The students grabbed their backpacks and together they walked inside. Erik turned to his right. Two girls were sharing headphones and were watching something on their computer. Another girl was sitting under a tree reading a book. A man was laying down on one of the benches in an awkward position. He was probably asleep. Sleep was something Erik needed, so he envied the random person.

Blood ran down the mystery man's mouth and dripped onto the cement. His heart had stopped five minutes ago.

* * *

**Operation Room, New York-Presbyterian/Queens Hospital, Queens County, New York**

Neurosurgeon Dr. Garner had already removed a piece of the patient's skull, exposing the sensitive grey matter underneath. The intern, Madeline looked upon the brain in complete awe. How this one organ controls how we move, think, and behave was fascinating. How every single brain in the world was different. Ranging from uniqueness to the devastating mental illnesses. She always thought of metal illnesses as the most magnificent and complex problems in the world.

Dr. Garner was shifting brain matter with extreme care. The soft flesh moved, making way for the rough and complex tumor inside.

"Dammit," Dr. Garner said to himself.

"What is it?" Madeline inquired.

"See all these blood vessels surrounding the tumor act as a defense mechanism; these tumors are always one step ahead, that's why they're so smart." Dr. Garner explained. Thin red lines caressed the white blob that was impacted into this man's head. One false move and the patient could bleed out.

"Well, we tried. There's no shame in trying." Madeline added.

"Who said anything about giving up?" Dr. Garner inquired, facing Madeline.

"But you said that the tumor is smart."

"It might be, but we're smarter. Bipolars, please." the neurosurgeon asked as a nurse placed the surgical tool on the man's paw. Dr. Garner looked at his intern and gave her a warm smile. She smiled back. Neurologist. That's what she wanted to become.

* * *

**Twin Peaks Memorial Elementary School, Atlanta, Georgia**

The sky had begun to darken as the heavy clouds slowly rolled over the city. Rumbling could be heard not too far from the school which meant that this wasn't going to be 'light showers'. The warm air started to pick up, lifting leaves off the ground and onto the roads.

Raymond was walking down the open hallway and climbed up the steps of the gym. He felt tiny raindrops beginning to fall on his giant arms. He noticed that the door was slightly open. He reached for his walkie.

"I think I found where the kid's at." Raymond notified.

"Oh, thank God we finally get to go home. Bring her over, it's gonna rain soon." Tanya replied.

The lemur slowly opened the gym doors. All the lights in the building were on. It seemed like this kid is extremely afraid of the dark. The white tiles magnified the amount of photons reflected onto the eye. Raymond had to narrow his eyes to help ease the small headache that began creeping into his mind.

He saw that the red door to the equipment was open. He slowly ventured toward the door. The lights inside were on. He opened the door and poked his head inside. The amount to sounds entering his ears shifted. The room sounded empty. It sounded like absolutely nothing was inside. The silence was deafening compared to the open space the actual gym was.

He turned his head the shelves full of equipment. There, he saw the small paws of a canine. He walked over to the small, hiding creature. Behind the giant red shelf, a small little girl sat. She looked up at the officer and shrunk in size.

"I found the kid," Raymond spoke. "But it turns out that he is a _she_." Raymond informed.

"Awesome! Let me alert the mother." Tanya replied.

Raymond looked into the eyes of the child. "Hold up, let me talk to her for a sec." Raymond said.

Tanya wasn't surprised. She always knew that Raymond had a big heart behind all that muscularity. "All right then. But don't take too long before you get emotionally attached to her." Tanya smiled.

"Hello, my name's Raymond. What's yours?" Raymond introduced himself.

The little girl hesitated. "Madison."

"Madison. Wow, that's a pretty name for a pretty girl. How old are you?"

"Six." Madison answered. "Am I in trouble?"

"What? No. Your mom is on her way over to pick you up. In the meantime, why don't you and I play with the carts?" Raymond inquired.

Madison just stared at him.

"You know you want to." Raymond tilted his head.

She tried to hold back her smile.

"There she is, let's see those scary teeth." Raymond crinkled his nose.

"Arrr!" Madison growled at him playfully.

"Wow, what big teeth you have, I better watch out for you! C'mon, why don't we get out of here?" Raymond inquired while grabbing her small paw.

* * *

**Atlanta University, Atlanta, Georgia**

Rain droplets started collecting against the glass panes of the library. The library had two floors. The bottom floor was for studying or purposes. Cubicles, round wooden tables, and bean bags were scattered across the entire floor. The second floor stored copies of every textbook imaginable. Right in the middle of the second floor, there was a giant opening that overlooked the bottom floor. Flags of different countries were placed around the circumference of the opening. Railings and support beams were placed around the opening to keep students from falling and to keep the entire building from collapsing.

Naomi sat at the far right end of the library with Kyle. Kelsi and Erik were at the top floor, shifting through the shelfs full of ancient books. Erik quickly placed a book back with a loud thud. "Oops," the fruit bat let out.

"Yo why you mad, Erik?" Kelsi joked.

"I'm not mad; I just thought I found it." Erik smiled.

A custodian climbed down a ladder after fixing one of the flickering lights. Kelsi didn't take her eyes off of him when he started coughing. He was probably sick with whatever was going around.

"Remind me why we're doing this?" Kelsi inquired.

"It's for my paleontology class. I have to study about four hundred million years of billions of species dying off because of asteroids, super volcanoes, global warming, shifting glaciers, and tectonic shifts." Erik replied. "Ya know, the easy stuff."

"That sounds interesting. I wish I took pale." Kelsi sighed.

"You really shouldn't. It's the most boring class I have ever had to put up with. It's nearly the end of the year and we're just getting to mass extinctions. It's so depressing, though. That professor's voice sounds so monotone. I have no idea how I was able to get through that class. I just wish I took floral design. At least I would have used that class to do homework or something useful." Erik sighed.

"You're getting through my boring class because I actually teach you something about the world around you instead of kitting what the students here call 'pussy shit'." a voice replied. The books behind Erik were removed from the shelf and revealed the face of the professor.

"Professor Heinz! You know everything I said was just the stress talking, right?" Erik nervously spoke.

"I've been teaching for twenty years, I've heard it all." Mr. Heinz spoke. He placed the books back in place. Erik turned to the vampire bat and mouthed the word 'Help'.

"You see, think of my class like this: you're figuring out why billions of said species have died. You're going to be answering questions that have made scientists bang their heads against walls. You're kind of like a detective. Hell, you are a defective." the professor forced a smile.

"Probably the most boring detective alive." Erik sighed.

"A detective with billions of cases. You'll be the only person in the world to have solved the deaths of billions. You have to think of the bigger picture here." the elderly professor patted Erik's shoulder.

"Yeah, it's going to have to take a lot more to convince me." Erik replied.

"You'll see in time." Mr. Heinz said as he walked off.

"That man makes me want to clear my throat, give him some cough medicine or something." Kelsi whispered.

Just down the hall of the library, the custodian collapsed. A small puddle blood started collecting as the crimson liquid trickled down his eyes and mouth.

* * *

**New York City Police Department, New York City, New York**

The situation in Albany intensified. People had begun to burn light buildings, vehicles and parks on fire. Special force teams were already deployed to the city, but that only made the crowd become even more boisterous.

A television flashed the images of the streets of the capital. People were thrashing cars around, flipping them over; breaking their windows, stealing valuables inside. But most of the time, they would hijack the car, only to crash it into lamppost or ram it into a building.

Molotov's were always present during a riot. People just liked the idea of having the power to set fire to everything. Animals were seen throwing the lit bottles at vehicles, stores, and even at the hordes of militarized police men. The images were sickening to the New York City Police Department.

"I don't even know why they're breaking into the stores and loot. They're robbing their own stores, only to complain later on that there's nothing in the stores." an officer commented, shaking his head.

"They're basically destroying their own city." a policewoman added.

"Rioting's pointless. What's the point of ravaging through your own city just to prove a point? They're the idiots who are going to be paying for the damages. They'll probably riot again for that reason. You could never win with idiots like these." another officer commented.

Sitting across the large room full of officers, sat Rico in his reclined chair. He didn't mind the idea of rioting. He thought it was beautiful in a way. He would sometimes just have the idea of joining one. For a short while until he actually had to do his job and arrest people. The long streaks of fire mesmerized the penguin. He was a pretty violent guy for someone who taught weapon safety lessons.

Every year or so, a school or a group of teenagers would come by the HQ and request lessons on gun safety or sometimes they would apply for the internship program for aspiring police officers. Every time, newbies would arrive in their high horses, thinking that police work was a constant action movie; fighting criminals, bust complex drug hierarchies, and meeting really hot police chicks. All of which were complete bull.

Working in the force you keep your post secure, look for any suspicious activity, get called up to break up fights in really old and creepy apartments, bust someone for speeding or running a red light, and fill out piles of paper work. All part of keeping society from collapsing.

The sheriff walked inside, "Grab your breakfast and meet me at the conference room, we need to come up with a plan for this whole crisis." Skipper announced.

Instantly, the officers swarmed the breakroom, each grabbing their biscuit and their cup of jo. Skipper turned to Private. "You coming?" he inquired.

"I think I'll keep Jackson's kids company." Private answered.

"You're going to talk about that new movie, aren't you?" Skipper raised a brow.

"…No." the young penguin answered.

The sheriff smiled, "I'll meet you in twenty, soldier."

The young officer smiled and waddled towards the department's daycare where all his young friends were stationed at.

Everyone started migrating towards the conference room. The corridor was full of overlapping conversations. Some were about the situation over at Albany. Others were talking about their families, their studies, other crime-scenes. A few were talking about the new technology that would be rolling out this month. They were arguing over which company was better than the other. This conversation would always pop up during this time of year. It would always end in a stalemate; mainly because they would shut up by the time the new phones, tablets, and laptops were released.

Rico waddled up next to Skipper. The sheriff turned. "Where's Kowalski?" he asked.

"Opi'al" the avian croaked. Hospital.

"I'm guessing he's with Stetson again?" the sheriff inquired.

"Yep." Rico nodded.

"Remind me to separate those two. Every time Kowalski gets assigned to the hospital, Stet keeps on sneaking off with him. I wouldn't be surprised if the guy proposed to Kowalski by now." Skipper joked.

Full sentences hoarsely escaped Rico's throat. To many of the officers, they thought he was just mumbling sounds that only he understood and no one else. The only people who really ever understood Rico were Skipper, Private, Kowalski, Marlene, and the Lemurs. Their own little group. Well, Skipper didn't like the idea of being in a group with the Lemurs. Especially if that group was a small one.

"His fiancée signed up for the internship program at the hospital?" Skipper inquired, raising a brow.

Rico only nodded.

"Wow, the dork actually found someone smart; and the person actually likes him back! Never would of thought." Skipper laughed. Rico snickered. Together, they walked inside the conference room that was had one lone TV screen on showcasing the events in Albany. The room filled with officers waiting for orders. _Today's going to be a long day_. Skipper thought to himself.

* * *

**Queens County, New York City, New York**

After raking the leaves off of her front lawn, Marlene tiredly walked inside her little house down the street from Skipper's. She made her way through the living room where everything was organized. A large flat screen TV was bolted on the wall. She had just gotten it last month; yet, she had yet to buy a broadcasting system that throws in hundreds of channels. She had stuck with cable because the monthly price for those services was way too expensive.

She only used her giant television for the news and watching movies. And Game of Thrones. She loved Game of Thrones. She didn't really appreciate all those really intense sex scenes that are thrown in the show. Other than that, it had everything a TV show could ever have: great characters, fantasy, fantastic battles and wars, the right level of politics, and yes, dragons.

She walked into the kitchen, placing her keys on the counter top. She crouched down and opened one of her cabinets. She had few pots, pans and other cookware and bakeware; all were sparsely scattered in the cabinets. She reached for the old kettle she had bought years ago. It had begun to show signs of rusting, but she didn't mind.

She walked to the kitchen and filled the kettle with warm water. She turned the stove to **HI** and placed the kettle on the warming stove. She then ventured to the living room and grabbed the remote that was sitting on her fake leather sofa. She pressed the **POWER** button and quickly changed it to **CNN**. She had been watching the news more often than any point in her life. With that sudden realization, she thought: _Am I officially an adult now?_ Probably not. She still was unemployed and she didn't go to college.

 **CNN** was currently on 'Good Morning, New York with Chuck Charles'. This made Marlene smile.

"Good evening ladies and gentlemen." the anchorman's voice boomed out of the speakers. "It's currently forty-nine degrees Fahrenheit here in New York, and it's a bright and sunny Monday morning. First up, coming in from Albany, New York, an update from the reported riots in the capital city, we have journalist Drake Hamilton; Drake?" Chuck called.

The otter didn't really take a liking to Drake Hamilton. He was always so boring and bland; it just killed the drive of the news. There she goes being an adult again. She remembered hearing Private say that he once played Drake Hamilton clips at night to help him sleep. Her smile grew. But it slowly faded as she continued to watch.

"Drake? Are you still with us?" Chuck called again. Nothing. "Hmm. It appears we have lost him. Maybe got a little mix-up here in the station."

 _That was strange._ Marlene thought.

Chuck Charles always had his station organized. Something like this would never happen when Chuck Charles was on. This caused Marlene to be more transfixed on the news broadcast; unaware of the situation outside her house.

"I'm afraid since our journalist in Albany isn't responding at the moment; we have Scott with an update on the crisis in San Francisco, Scott?" Chuck called. There was uneasiness in Chuck's voice that Marlene caught.

"Thank you, Chuck. The situation in San Francisco has worsened after catastrophe struck over at San Francisco Bay Memorial Hospital when a group of terrorists bombed and opened fire at hospital staff and patients." Scott answered gravely.

San Francisco. Marlene hadn't been paying attention to that specific story. She remembered about hearing of what happened a few months ago. But the mentioning of terrorists in a hospital made her blood boil. Who would be cold enough to shoot at a hospital, the safest place in the entire planet?

"San Francisco is still under quarantine by the government, and is most likely to stay that way until the end of the year." Scott continued. "The city has since then been placed under martial law. Military personnel have entered the city five hours ago. Citizens have tried to leave the city during the exchange, causing even more panic and riots in the Californian city. All businesses have been shut down, excluding the hospital and medical research center. We still are in the dark for the reason why the city has been placed under quarantine; we will update you once we have an answer."

"Thank you, Scott. Joining us over the phone is Obi Tatenda, go ahead, Obi." Chuck called.

"Yes, thank you, Chuck. I have an idea on why San Fran has been quarantined. It's a lethal virus that's originated in San Francisco and the government is trying to keep from spreading outside the city. The only way they can find a cure is to find a cure inside the city, that's why they're only keeping the medical research center open, they're trying to find a cure to the virus that's already spread outside the city." Obi's voice trembled in fear.

"Obi, I'm not sure I'm following you," Chuck started.

"The virus is already outside the city. That's what's causing the riots over in Albany. They're not people causing the riots. They're trying to fight the infected. They're trying to contain the virus in secrecy! But they already know that the virus is at Phase Six, cross-contamination meaning that the virus is transmitting through every known organism on the planet!"

The sound the kettle whistling made her jump. The otter quickly made her way to the kitchen; she didn't want to miss a single second. She lifted the kettle, and poured the boiling water into her mug. But the whistling didn't stop. The whistling was a scream that came from outside.

She turned off the stove and trotted to the front window.

"Wait, wait, are you telling me that this thing is already at global pandemic levels?" Chuck inquired. "That's just ridiculous."

"YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHY SAN FRANCISCO IS QUARANTINED! You're keeping the truth from trillions of already infected animals! The virus is here and it's beginning to mutate into stage five: **cytopathic reanimation**!" the crazed man yelled.

"Hospitals are hiding the dead! They have to burn them to help keep the truth from the public!"

Marlene lifted the blinds of her window. What she was past the glass made her skin pale. A man was attacking a woman over at the house in front of hers. The woman was letting out bloodcurdling screams as the man was sinking his teeth into the woman's neck. Blood spewed from the side of her head and stained the sidewalk and the man's face.

"Oh my God…" she said under her breath as she ran towards her phone.

"Obi, I'm going to have to ask you to calm down." Chuck Charles ordered.

"They're covering this flu season with something bigger! People are dying from this virus and no one is talking about it!"

The otter punched in the three numbers. The screams continued outside. She began hearing other people's voices as the violent act drew in attention.

"New York City Police Department, what's your emergency?" a woman answered.

"Uhh, yes! There's a-a man attacking a wo-woman and he's biting her throat and- and there's a lot of blood…" Marlene stammered.

"Okay ma'am, help is on the way, just sit tight and keep away from the crime scene. Do not attempt to approach the man. Stay inside, help is on the way." the officer replied. Marlene threw her phone on the sofa and ran out of her house.

* * *

**New York-Presbyterian/Queens Hospital, Queens County, New York**

After receiving the four one five from headquarters, Kowalski had agreed to let Stetson head inside the city to assist. A dead body found in the middle of New York City is considered the worst case scenario. Kowalski just hoped that they have the culprit do just decided to murder someone in broad daylight. It's like the abusers get even more ignorant with every passing day.

Kowalski stood in the lobby next to the front desk. Every now and then, patients would arrive and tell the nurses about their current dilemma, ranging from the flu to bloody injuries. One patient came in with a bite mark on his arm. The nurse quickly took him to a bed.

Kowalski found it strange that the man with a bite mark was being treated like if he had some highly contagious disease, when the flu around them was even more important. Speaking about the flu, where were those face masks?

"I've got the face masks!" a nurse announced as she waved one in the air.

"Can you go and hand them out to everyone in the waiting room?" the nurse in the front desk inquired.

"No can do, I'm about to assist in my first brain surgery today and I need this time to scrub in." the nurse replied.

"I'll take those off your hands." Kowalski offered.

"Thank you Kowalski." the young nurse thanked the police officer and ran back down the corridor.

The tall officer gave all the nurses situated in the front desk a mask. He then waddled towards the waiting room that was flooded. So many people were here because of the flu. Something about this didn't feel right about this. Then it hit him. There must be an epidemic of some sort. He stopped in his tracks and placed a face mask over his beak. The sterile smell made his stomach feel uneasy. It felt like someone had sprayed every individual mask with a sterile smelling spray. A phone from the front desk rang.

The officer began handing out masks to the awaiting citizens. He turned to his left when the nurse had stopped talking on the phone. He watched as the nurse whispered something to another nurse. The other nurse nodded and they both walked in opposite directions. They reached for something that was hidden on top of the only two hallways leading to the hospital's heart. A plastic wall was slowly rolled down that separated the lobby from the other parts of the hospital. Something horribly wrong must be happening.

Kowalski handed out the last few face masks. He then placed the cardboard box on the front desk. "You mind informing me on what this is all about?" Kowalski asked a nurse.

"We just received instruction on putting the protective coverings on our hallways, that's all we know." the nurse replied.

"Who gave you the order?" Kowalski inquired.

"Emily." the nurse answered.

Kowalski headed for the hallway. "Wait, where are you going?" the nurse inquired.

"I'm going to ask Emily a few questions." Kowalski replied.

"But you can't go in there!"

"Ma'am, I have a room full of vulnerable people and it's my job to find a way that protects these people, you keeping me from doing my job makes me think you're planning something with Emily." Kowalski sternly said.

"It's our job to protect and save people too, we're just doing our jobs, Kowalski!"

The penguin ignored the nurse and trotted down the corridor, blocking out the nurse's words.

* * *

**New York City Police Department, New York City, New York**

"I've called you all here to discuss the growing situation in Albany. As you all might have heard, riots have broken out in the capital city for reasons unknown. I've been informed this morning that the city recently tried to contact our police department for help. Before I continue, have we gotten an update on the situation in Albany? Anyone been paying attention to the news lately?" the sheriff inquired.

"I've got word from my folks who live in Albany that the entire county has placed under martial law for the coming weeks, sir. They've been told to stay indoors at all times." an officer informed.

"How long ago was this?" Skipper inquired.

"A few hours ago." the officer answered.

"So I'm guessing that they've got the riot situation under control by now? Because I know that these images on the TV are just reruns of the riot that happened earlier." Skipper said, pointing to the large LCD display.

The officers looked at each other. "No one's even tried contacting them back?" Skipper asked the ensemble.

"We tried contacting them a few minutes ago; it took us straight to the Emergency Alert System. No one was able to get through to the city besides Lt. Ortega with his family. But that was hours ago." a woman replied.

"Emergency Alert System? What the hell is that being activated for?" Skipper inquired.

"We don't know. We thought you might have a clue." the policewoman replied.

"That system's been dated. The thing's only been programed to be used when a city has gone dark." Skipper thought for a moment. "Albany's systems are severely outdated and the people managing it aren't so bright either, but they're not stupid enough to use E.A.S. the thing will just cause people to panic." Skipper supposed.

"I'm not able to get to my family anymore." Lt. Ortega announced while carrying his flip phone on his shoulder.

"Anyone who has family over at Albany, call them now." Skipper ordered.

A small percentage of the officers dialed their families. All calls lead to the same message. "Nothing, sir." an officer replied.

"Put it on speaker." Skipper ordered.

Without hesitation the officer hit the **SPEAKER** button on his smartphone. "…Civil Authorities have issued an immediate evacuation for the following counties—"

"That's not the same message I got."

"Me either."

The message continued, "Albany, Greene, Madison, Ulster, Schohaire, Montgomery, Columbia, Schenectady—"

"They're just listing off the surrounding counties." an officer said.

"What, is everybody rioting about something up North?"

The message kept playing, "Masses of individuals are attacking the public and causing chaos, damage, and destruction. Authorities are recommending all persons to evacuate the city immediately in a quick but safe manner. As a last resort, seek shelter in a sturdy structure."

"They're telling people to evacuate the entire area, that's millions of people." an officer added.

Skipper turned to the giant television screen. He waited for some news station to make a report about the emergency calls. He waited for the **BREAKING NEWS** bar to appear. Nothing happened. Nothing appeared.

"No one's talking about this." he whispered to himself. "How is no one talking about this!" the sheriff yelled in frustration.

The lights started to flicker. "Sir, they just said that they're to begin evacuation for Bronx, Queens, and Manhattan." the officer with the still playing message informed.

"The entire Southern tip of New York? That's forty-three million people!" Skipper yelled. Skipper's head was beginning to ache. They were being left in the dark. These orders seemed to be irrational and negligent.

"Listen, I don't know what's happening, but there is something going on and we're being left in the dark about it. How knows? Maybe the E.A.S. could be some dumb kid messing with the grid. We've had it happen before right here in our city before, it could have happened to Albany. We wait for confirmation about these orders, meaning that I'll be talking with the mayor who will have the final say. We do not spread the word of what happened in this conference room. It'll cause nothing but panic amongst the people." Skipper explained.

"In review, in case your brain couldn't comprehend all that, I'll update every one of you after I talk with the mayor, you do not talk about these rash orders to anybody outside this room. We keep calm until we have something to worry about." Skipper clarified. "Until we have more solid evidence, we don't do a thing. You're all dismissed."

The sounds of chairs plagued the room as all the officers got up at once. They filed out of the conference room, a couple stayed. "That was a good call, not taking action right away." an officer commented.

"I just hope it was the right move." Skipper replied, facing Rico.

"What do you think this is?" the officer inquired.

"I don't know, but it's not a riot. Something is happening and we're being left in the dark." Skipper replied.

An officer ran inside the conference room. Sweat stained his armpits and his chest. Spots of blood lay scattered across his uniform. "S-something... something happened and I-I-I don't know what happened… it all happened so fa-ast…" the officer shuddered.

Skipper grabbed the officer by the shoulders. "What happened officer?"

"McCauley. He's dead…" the officer finally said.

Skipper's skin turned pale. The rest of the officers were left speechless. The large LCD screen turned black. A loud beep was heard. The sheriff faced the TV screen. It was the Emergency Alert System letting out the horrifying flat beeps. Between each beep, there was a deafening silence. The entire station was quiet.

The male robotic voice boomed;

" **This is an emergency broadcast transmission, this is not a test. The following message is applied for the following states: Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Virginia, New Jersey, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. This is an emergency broadcast transmission, this is not a test.** "

"They're alerting the entire Easter Coast of the United States…" an officer murmured. Gunshots were heard just outside. With the sound of firearms, the officers rushed to where they originated from.

* * *

**New York-Presbyterian/Queens Hospital, Queens County, New York**

Kowalski waddled down the halls of the hospital. He kept an eye out for the marten, Emily. He passed by patient rooms, each filled with sickly citizens. Each face he saw had dark circles around their eyes. Every non-infected person was wearing a face mask. Nurses scrambled to keep up with the continuous influx of patients.

Kowalski decided to head for the E.R. where Emily was probably stationed at. Every corner of the hospital, there was a patient. Most of the patients had sweaty foreheads, shaking paws, and was mumbling sentences. One patient to his right started bleeding from his eyes. The mother panicked.

"NURSE! My son!" the mother called.

A nurse rushed to aid the child as blood slowly trickled down the kid's cheeks.

"Okay, he' going to need Emily. Please, come with me, ma'am; no need to worry." the nurse said as she walked the child and the mother away from the other families.

"Hey! My daughter has been here for hours! All you gave her was a pill and she's not feeling better!" a father yelled.

"Some of us have been here since yesterday and you people haven't given us any answers!" a woman yelled.

"Please everyone, there's no need to panic!" Kowalski yelled.

"That's easy for you to say, you don't have a kid who keeps saying that his body hurts like hell!" a father barked.

"Yelling and making a commotion of things isn't going to help you children. They're scared and sick. Having their parents fighting isn't going to make them feel any better. The nurses are trying their hardest to help each and every one of you. Look around you, look at all these people in need of help. We're over the hospital capacity to take in patients. Help is coming; you all need to be patient. Right now, your children need you more than ever. Isn't it our job to hug them and love them as hard as we can? Fighting with nurses and causing uproar will only stall treatment for your kids. Please just hang in there a little longer, and I promise, you all will get treated and you all will have your answers by tonight." Kowalski coaxed the crowd.

The alarmed parents sat back down. One mother hugged her daughter and kissed her on the head.

"Whoo…" Kowalski let out. He just avoided a mass panic. In a hospital, that would have been ugly.

"Thank you." a nurse mouthed out to the tall officer.

Kowalski returned in his search for Emily. "Have you seen Emily?" Kowalski asked a passing nurse.

"I think I saw her in the E.R." the nurse replied.

"Excuse me; just pretend you two are still talking." Emily butted in.

"Emily, I was just about to—"

"Yeah, I don't care. Hey, if you could just look past my shoulder, and don't shift your head; please tell me that that patient is not dead." Emily whispered.

Kowalski shifted his eyes and focused on the man that was lying on a stretcher. His chest wasn't rising of falling. "Good Galileo..." Kowalski's body shivered.

"Keep smiling." Emily flashed her smile.

Kowalski and the other nurse forced a dysfunctional smile.

"Without sounding or looking like you're scared, I want one of you to help me get him to the morgue." Emily smiled.

"What are we all smiling about?" a nurse shoved her face in the conversation. "These people are dropping like flies, the monitors in the Emergency Room are failing, and we're running out of room in the morgue." the nurse informed.

"There's no more room in the morgue?" Kowalski broke character.

" _KEEP SMILING._ " Emily's snout twitched.

Kowalski gave a grin so wide that the veins in his neck protruded.

"Okay Jessica, I want you to help Bea back at the Emergency Room. Kowalski, I want you to protect the body, make sure no one else but you gets near him. I'm going to contact the New York Hospital Regulations Committee and tell them that we are in a ' **Phase Six** ' emergency. We need to isolate _every single patient_ in this hospital." Emily ordered.

"We're facing an epidemic from an unknown virus, aren't we?" Kowalski kept smiling.

"If only Stet was that smart. Everyone knows what to do? Okay, go and act casually. " Emily ordered.

The two nurses walked off towards the Emergency Room. Emily walked towards a desk where the phone was. Kowalski placed a flipper on his gun as he walked towards the deceased. The body was motionless. It felt so surreal. There in front of him was a dead animal; and in front of everyone to see.

Emily got off the phone. She casually walked towards Kowalski. She stood on the other side of the stretcher. She gave Kowalski a look. "Okay, Mr. O'Malley, we're just going to check on your vitals if you just let me and Kowalski here take you to a room..." Emily practically yelled. Her voice sounded a lot deeper as well. _An Oscar for her_. Kowalski sarcastically thought to himself.

Together, they pushed the stretcher out of the room. They walked down a hallway that was filled with sick patients. Emily prayed that no one would notice the man's still chest. The mammal and the penguin looked at each other. Kowalski shifted his focus on the man who was sitting on the floor. The man looked straight into Kowalski's eyes. His face slowly grew with shock.

"Dammit," Kowalski whispered to himself.

The two left the hallway and took a left. Two nurses were stationed at the end of the dimly lighted hallway. Both nurses were dressed in hazmat suits. Kowalski's heartbeat started to increase with each step. Slowly and steadily they grew closer to the guarded doors. The nurses opened the doors, revealing the piles of bodies that were on the other side. Kowalski's beak dropped. Dozens of white body bags were scattered everywhere. Large and small, they were all bloodied.

The deceased man started breathing again. "We need to do this **now**." Emily panicked as she reached for something in her pocket.

"Do what?" Kowalski nervously asked.

The deceased man's head began to rise. Kowalski quickly stepped away from the stretcher. He couldn't believe what was happening right in front of him. The head slowly turned and faced Kowalski. The man reached his arm where the tall penguin once stood. The corpse fell off the stretcher and came crashing down. Kowalski's breathing started to pick up in pace.

Half of the man's face was uncovered. His soulless eyes pierced into Kowalski's. Blood ran down his eyes and mouth. A growl was let out as it stretched out its hand. Emily rushed in and drove her scalpel into the man's neck. He collapsed. Kowalski looked up at the nurse.

" _Do not_ tell Skipper about _this_." Emily ordered, out of breath.

Kowalski picked himself up. "Emily, _what on earth was **that**_?" he stammered.

"Don't tell Skipper." Emily repeated. The two nurses quickly ran in with a body bag. "We have this under control." she added, still having a firm grip on the scalpel.

She was beginning to breathe heavily. Her feathers were matted and cluttered. Hundreds of bodies were still piled behind her. Each with blood stains where their heads were.

"Under control…" she repeated. To make matters worse, all the lights in the hospital went out.

* * *

**New York City Police Department, New York City, New York**

Skipper and Rico rushed to the front of the building where they were greeted with two bloodied officers. One of them had their entire uniform soaked in the crimson liquid and the other was holding his arm. Just outside the doors of the department, an angry mob was present. They were all yelling and throwing their fists up in the air repeatedly. The lights began to flicker.

"What the hell happened?!" Skipper barked.

"There was a four one five in the center of the city. We-we thought he was _dead_ , but he came back!" the officer with the bloodied uniform stammered.

"Who? Who came back?" Skipper yelled over the crowd's uproar.

"The _dead guy_! He _came back_ to _life_! Then he attacked his wife! He chewed her **_face off_**!" the officer yelled. Everyone looked at each other in disbelief. Rico turned to his commander. Skipper couldn't even believe what he was hearing.

"I tried to help the girl, but the dead guy got a bite out of Michael here. He tore a giant chunk of flesh off of his arm!" the officer yelled.

Skipper walked to the injured officer. He looked at the man's arm in disgust. Blood trickled down and the bone was exposed. An officer placed the bloodied cloth back on the bite.

"I shot the guy…" the stammering officer confessed.

"You shot him? In front of all those people?! What the hell is wrong with you?!" Skipper barked.

"I didn't know what to do, it all happened so fast!" the officer yelled. "After two shots in the chest, he still didn't go down. He didn't die. That's the thing, **HE DIDN'T DIE**!" the officer cried.

Skipper stepped away from the weeping officer.

"He didn't die…" he wept.

The phones began to ring. The department's 911 operators struggled to keep up with the ongoing calls. Each one was about a domestic disturbance in a neighborhood. Some of them were of other dead bodies found in Central Park and in downtown New York.

"We got another four one five off Wall Street," an operator announced.

"Skipper?" an officer called. "What do we do?"

Skipper didn't know how to respond to that question at first. "Me and Rico can address the four one five. I want all available units to start evacuating the city. I don't know what is happening, but my gut is telling me that this isn't going to end soon." Skipper ordered. "We should I want all of you in here to get a control on the riot outside, we don't want another Albany." Skipper finished. Then the lights died all at once, leaving the officers blind. The lights didn't shut down just in the HQ, but across all of New York City and half of Eastern Coast of the United States. Pure darkness. For the first time in fifty years the New York City power grid collapsed. Only, the power would never come back on.


	3. Not Fade Away: Part Three

**O.R., New York-Presbyterian/Queens Hospital, Queens County, New York**

The patient monitor began to scream its robotic beeps as the patient began to descend into V-fib. Blood escaped the tumor and his brain began to swell like a balloon. The pinkness of the brain began to fade away as it turned grey.

"The patient's herniating!" Madeline yelled.

"Dammit, his vessel leaked, his tumor's swelling. I need to drain the ventricle, give me a blunt-tip needle!" Dr. Garner ordered.

The scrub nurse shifted through the small table scattered with surgical tools. She grabbed a large needle and handed it to the neurosurgeon.

The tumor started to change colors from a pale pink to a milky grey. Madeline's eyes widened. "You're going in _blind_?!" she stammered. "You could paralyze him!"

"If I don't do this, he's going to bleed to death on this table, I have no other choice." Dr. Garner snapped, digging the large needle into the dying brain.

"Is that another tumor?" a scrub nurse inquired, looking at the live scans of the patient's head.

Dr. Garner looked up, facing the scans. There, on the scans, a new massive tumor was present. This time, it is situated at the base of the brain and ran down the spinal cord. Bright white lines had wrapped themselves across the brain stem and stretched along the spine.

"What the hell…?" Dr. Garner murmured.

The lights in the operation room shut down, leaving the surgeons and the nurses in the dark.

"STOP! Nobody move!" Dr. Garner ordered. "If any of you move while I have a needle deep inside the patient, I could risk killing him. Nobody _move_ , nobody _leave_ , nobody _breathe_." Dr. Garner ordered.

Silence. The deafening sounds were suffocated with white noise. The sounds of scrambling nurses outside of the operating room were heard. Dr. Garner turned to his left, "Mark, very carefully, take a bag and start supplying him with oxygen. He's going to suffocate if we don't bag him." Dr. Garner whispered.

The squeaking of a chair was heard. A sorry and an excuse me were heard. A drawer was opened and the sound of a rustling thin plastic bag was audible. The drawer was closed and the footsteps of the anesthesiologist crept closer. Madeline's heart was pounding. She had her paws on a clamp that was used to hold the skin flaps in place. She didn't realize it until now that her paws were cramping. Sweat began form on her paws and her forehead.

Mark carefully placed the mask over the patient's mouth and began to squeeze the plastic bag with one hand. Air was propelled into the patient's lungs and his chest began to rise and fall again.

Madeline sighed. "Now we wait." Madeline opined.

Dr. Garner smiled under his surgical mask. "Now we wait."

* * *

**Atlanta University, Atlanta, Georgia**

The rain began to beat down on the earth. The large windows were blurred by the rainwater, only giving off a sense of what was outside the building. The translucency of the windows fascinated the vampire bat.

"It was nice and sunny not too long ago, what the hell happened?" Kelsi inquired.

Erik faced the glass windows. "Looks pretty." The fruit bat added.

Kelsi nodded. "It does." she turned and faced Erik who was sitting on a recliner chair, reading a prehistoric book. "Take a picture of me with the window. This is just screaming 'profile picture'." Kelsi smiled, handing her smartphone to her boyfriend.

Erik looked up, "You want to take a picture with the window?" the fruit bat inquired. "When I said it looked pretty, I only said that to support your mentality, you know that right?"

"As a photographer, a window is more than just a window. It's… It's… Just take the picture already." Kelsi tossed her cellphone at the fruit bat's lap.

Erik rolled his eyes. Kelsi positioned herself, leaning against the window on her side. Erik stood in front of her, aiming the lens at her face. The vampire bat tilted her face and peered off past the glass. Her eyelids were lowered and her mouth was slightly opened. The dim light reflected upon her face and intensified the shadows of her cheekbones, her lips, and her eyes.

Erik became distracted. "Holy hell, you look fantastic!"

"Make sure to use the black and white filter." Kelsi replied, not moving her lips.

Erik snapped the photo and stared at it. She was the most beautiful person in the world to him. He never loved anything like her. "Wow…"

"How did it come out?" Kelsi inquired, walking towards Erik.

"You came out beautiful as always." Erik smiled, handing her the smartphone.

"Oh my God, I look like I have a hunchback." Kelsi said in disgust. "Take it again?"

The fruit bat let out a long sigh.

"Who are you texting?" Naomi asked the grey wolf next to her.

"Dad. He's lives in upstate New York. He got out of work early, something about an emergency alert thing. Sounds serious, but he's not worried. He's just asking how we're doing." Kyle replied.

"Emergency alert? Don't they usually issue those things out when we're going to get nuked or something?" Naomi inquired, scrolling past pages of notes and research pages.

"I don't know. I mean, that's probably the reason why Albany is acting up. Fear?" Kyle inquired. "Anyway, what's going on here?" the grey wolf asked, staring at the computer screen that had multiple tabs and programs running.

"Huh? Oh, I'm researching about this flu that's been going around. My professor said that he'll graduate us if we actually prove that it's not the flu and actually something else. Studying to be a pathologist it's have instinct, half improvisation." Naomi answered.

"What do you have so far, Einstein?" Kyle inquired.

"Well, I'm not really trying to prove that it isn't influenza, but a mutated version of it." Naomi clicked on a webpage. "Every year, the virus mutates, which is why we develop much stronger vaccines each year." the webpage she clicked on showed very record of a change in the flu vaccine since the early nineteen hundreds.

"Today, there are three types of influenza viruses; type A, B, and C. Type A and B cause the annual influenza epidemics that have up to twenty percent of the population sniffling, aching, coughing, and running high fevers. Type C also causes flu; however, type C flu symptoms are much less severe. We're currently in one right now, but I believe that the current one we are in right now is a mutated version, a much aggressive strain of influenza." Naomi continued.

"The contagion is still unknown, but I'm thinking that it's fomites; transition through touch." Naomi concluded.

"Is this the reason why so many people are getting sick?" Kyle inquired.

"It might be. I just need a sample of the virus; these people aren't even letting me near them, so that's only a fantasy." Naomi sighed.

"Hey guys, are you seeing this?" Erik called out.

Kyle turned to where Erik's voice emitted. Red and blue lights splashed through the windows. "Guess we should have a look." Kyle suggested.

Just at the hallway leading into the library, the custodian was gone, leaving only his pool of blood and a trail that lead away from the library. The custodian walked aimlessly away from the library and towards the main entrance.

"What's up?" Kyle inquired.

"The po-po's here. I can't really see why, though." Erik replied, wiping the glass panels, trying to get a clear visual of the outside.

"You're gonna break the glass if you keep at it like that." Kelsi added.

The backdoor of the library closed, making everyone jump. "C'mon." Kyle said, grabbing Naomi's paw.

The group hurried to the sound of the door. No one was ever supposed to use that door, so it was strange to hear it close. People made stories about the door, saying that it would lead to the school's bunker, which would be used if there were ever a bomb threat or a twister.

"Who do you think it is?" Kelsi inquired.

"Maybe it's an axe murderer." Naomi answered, giggling.

"Axe murderer would be fun!" Kyle commented.

The group of four reached the back of the library, finding a man with a flashlight staring at the door.

"Umm, can we help you?" Kyle inquired.

The man jumped and pointed the flashlight at the group. "Why didn't the alarm go off?" the man inquired.

"What alarm?" Erik inquired.

"An alarm is supposed to go off if you use this door, why isn't it working? Wait a minute, why are you people here?" the man inquired.

"Umm, studying? What else?" Kyle answered.

"But we're on lockdown."

"Lockdown?"

"I don't hear any alarms blaring, do you hear any alarms?" Kyle inquired.

"None that I hear," Kelsi replied.

"There was a shooter at a hospital, the man escaped and is somewhere in the area. _Here_." the man informed, his voice a little shaky.

"A shoot— there's a shooter in the dorms? Is that why we saw police cars over there?" Erik questioned.

"Oh my God," Kelsi gasped in disbelief.

The man turned his flashlight off. "Not in the dorms exactly, but he, or they, are in the area. We just need to stay put here. I'm going to gather everyone in here, all of you need to get in here." the man opened the backdoor again.

"But, we're not supposed to go through here." Naomi replied.

"It's okay, this leads to the bunker. I want all of you to stay in there until the lockdown has been lifted." the man ordered, pushing everyone inside.

"Wait, I want to help." Kyle insisted.

"No, I need you people to stay here. You'll be risking your life if you go out there." everyone was stood on the opposite side of the door. The man handed Kyle is flashlight. "I'll come back for you." the door closed, " _Stay here_." with that, the man left, leaving the group of friends to fend for themselves.

* * *

**New York City Police Department, New York City, New York**

People left their homes after the power went out. Conversations between neighbors of what could be the cause of the blackout were discussed. Some blamed a gas leak; others blamed the government after they issued the Emergency System Alert.

After the message was placed on every television screen on the East Coast and the lights went out, people packed their bags and climbed into their cars and drove away from the city. Roads were overflowing with vehicles leaving the suburbs and away from the megalopolis. Some residents just scratched their heads and became angry at their television screens for interrupting their daily programming. But with the power out, that fueled their anger even more.

Deep in the city, people climbed out of their vehicles and began to yell at traffic because the traffic lights weren't working; causing vehicles to crash into each other, slowing down traffic even more. Others exited their offices and scrabbled into their cars because of the blackout.

Uptown, a protest began to form. Citizens stood in front of the New York Police Department building, calling out the officer who shot at an innocent man. The people protesting weren't really at the scene when it happened; they just stood yards away from the crime scene and witnessed what seemed to be a person asking for help being shot by the police.

With the blackout and the emergency warning blaring through car radios and television screens, more people gathered at the protest. Animals began to shake vehicles back and forth. More vehicles began to fill the streets with panicking residents leaving their places of work and scrambling to get out of New York City. The blackout only caused even more panic. There were just a few reanimated corpses roaming among the living. Nobody could tell among the mass panic in the city.

Skipper scrambled around the building, trying to find a working telephone. All the communication services were down. No one could get in or out of the city communication wise.

"Nothing?!" Skipper barked.

"I've got nothing, Sir." a female officer responded, frantically dialing phone numbers.

The building was dark. The only thing that helped it from being completely pitch black was the light coming in from outside. The yells of people protesting made it nearly impossible to hear anything.

"There's got to be a working line. No one can get to the power plant?" Skipper inquired, one flipper holding a dead phone.

"I could take a car with me and drive over there myself." an officer suggested.

"Go; find us some answers on what the hell is happening." Skipper ordered. The officer rushed out of the building, dodging the angry crowd just outside.

"I'll come with you." his partner said, exiting the HQ.

Two young officers came back with two shotguns and three handguns. Skipper's eyes widened. "What the hell do you two think you're doing?!" Skipper barked.

"These people are panicking. And what happened with officer bite-mark over there, there's no telling _this_ is the reason we are being told to evacuate New York." one of the officers replied, placing the weapons on top of the front desk.

The young officer reached for the shotgun. Rico slammed his flipper on the weapon.

"You are _not_ going to take these outside. You are going to stay inside until further notice." Skipper ordered.

"We are trying to protect the _people_ , Skipper."

"And I'm protecting the people from _you_. You are going to stay right here where you will stand your guard!" Skipper barked.

The officer glared at the sheriff. He let go of the weapon, placed his handgun on the table and walked away. Skipper turned to one of the officers present, "Make sure he doesn't do anything stupid." the officer nodded and followed the young officer.

Skipper grabbed the handgun and placed it behind his belt. Rico took the guns back to the armory. The sheriff turned to the crowd just outside the building. New York was slowly falling into the place Albany was in. It would only be a matter of time before the city begins to riot. The department's radio set still functioned.

Skipper waddled towards the injured officer who finally had the bleeding under control. "What did you see? What really happened?" Skipper inquired.

"I already told you what happened." the officer's partner replied, tears still trickling down his face.

"Michael," Skipper called.

The officer sniffled. "We were responding to a four one five. It was dead man off the intersection. We were warning people away from the scene. I looked at him, the dead guy. He had blood running down his eyes. I've never seen anything like it, except in the movies. I was going to cover him with something when he… woke up. He grabbed my arm and just took a bite. That's when Jacob here rushed to me." Michael answered; tears began forming in her eyes.

"What happened after?" Skipper inquired.

"He jumped on some woman and he… he started _eating her face_." tears began to run down Michael's face. A woman's scream was heard outside the building. Skipper backed away from the sobbing officer and faced the crowd that waited outside. People were running in every direction.

"Radio in special ops. We might be looking at a riot erupting right at our front yard soon." Skipper ordered. "We're going to need every available unit… Shit, Kowalski…!" the sheriff remembered his brother just outside the city.

An officer entered the building, "Sir, we have a problem at the Madison Square Garden. It-it's urgent."

Just a few feet away from him, Private stood staring at the angry crowd that stood at the front doors of the HQ. He had heard everything the officers were talking about. A dead person coming back to life? He had only heard about that happening in movies and TV shows. But… could it all be real? Could that happen in real life? More screams and shrieks were heard. The young penguin began to shake like a leaf. Kowalski was still out there somewhere; he could be in danger…

"Alright, Rico, you go ahead and sort whatever's going on at the MSG; take someone with you. I'll deal with the dead body over at Times Square. The rest of you can either go out and help, or stay here and guard the fort. When I get back, let's talk about an evacuation plan once the dust settles." Skipper ordered. He caught the sight of Private standing at the hallway. With the people outside, he couldn't stand the fact of leaving Private here; too many threats. "Private, you're with me. The rest of you, you know what you're gonna do, let's all meet in two or three hours. Everyone got it? Good, let's stop New York from tearing itself apart."

* * *

**Emergency Room, New York-Presbyterian/Queens Hospital, Queens County, New York**

Kowalski and Emily rushed inside the E.R. where the sounds of people panicking and arguing were heard. Emily plowed through the double doors and was horrified at the scene. Nurses were frantically keeping the critical patients alive by manually sending oxygen into their lungs.

The machines that were breathing for them were glitching and were wailing, signaling that they were about to shut down completely. The generators didn't start up. Patients were flopping around, gasping for oxygen. Blood began to run down their eyes.

"GET BVMs! THESE PEOPLE AREN'T GETTING ENOUGH OXYGEN!" Emily yelled at Kowalski who rushed towards the medical cabinets.

Emily grabbed an Ambu bag from one of the nurses. "Oh my God, what's happening to my son?!" the crying mother stammered.

"Your son isn't getting enough oxygen, help me keep him still! Grab his legs!" Emily ordered as she placed the respirator bag over the gasping patient's mouth. She squeezed the bag, sending oxygen into the boy's lungs. "Ma'am, I'm going to need you to wait outside."

"But—"

"OUTSIDE, NOW!" Emily barked.

Kowalski grabbed a respirator bag from one of the drawers and rushed to one of the thrashing patients. "Hold him down!" Kowalski barked.

He placed the respirator mask over the patient's mouth and began to squeeze, sending air to her stomach. Emily caught sight of the officer's mistake. "You're sending air into her stomach, you're going to need to go in through her mouth, use an endotracheal tube!" Emily ordered.

Kowalski only heard of this complication about four times in his lifetime. Kowalski rushed to the table next to him. He opened the small red drawers, shifting through the useless junk that was stored inside. He threw the drawer across the room in frustration. There were about five medical personnel in the Emergency Room; every one of them was aiding a patient breathe. There were ten patients who were chocking to death.

"Found it!" Kowalski informed; a long tube in one flipper and a metallic object in the other.

"Okay, just— "

"I have it, don't worry," Kowalski replied, sliding the large metallic object into the patient's throat, shifting the tongue to get a better opening into the trachea. Once he had a clear visual, he slipped the tube down her throat. He grabbed the respirator bag and connected it with the endotracheal tube. He squeezed the bag, sending air into the patient's lungs. Her chest rose and fell.

Kowalski let out a sigh of relief. But his liberation was cut short when he turned to his left. Right next to his patient, a dead man lay motionless. He had died moments before they came bursting on in the Emergency Room. Blood ran down his eyes.

"Emily…" Kowalski called.

The marten looked around the room. There were ten other patients who were in critical condition. One began to thrash around. The delirium symptom was taking affect. Soon, all of these people would slowly show signs of dementia and autophagia. Another patient died of suffocation.

Emily faced the tall penguin. "Kowalski, these people are going to die; and they are going turn." the mammal informed.

Kowalski gave her a look of despair. "That man you put down, these people are going to end up just like him?" Kowalski inquired. He already knew the answer.

Emily nodded. "That man behind you, you need to stop him from doing so." the mammal informed.

Kowalski faced the dead man on the bed. His blood stained the sheets he was laying on. "Severe brain trauma is the only way to stop it."

"These people are _sick_. We cannot just call it all _off_ and _stab them in the back of the head_." Kowalski insisted. Emily shook her head. "We can treat these people!"

"There is no treating them! These people are sick and they are going to _die_! They _come back_. They _all come back_!" Emily yelled.

"People don't just get up after their hearts stop! It's impossible!" Kowalski barked.

"You don't think that I'm thinking of the same thing?! I'm losing my religion here! Everything I've learned, everything I've done has fallen apart the second the first person reanimated and tried to eat one of us!" Emily snapped. A patient began to seize. Emily handed the respirator to an available nurse and rushed to the patient. She began pressing down hard on the animal's chest as he flat lined; another potential threat.

"We're on the same page, Kowalski. We all are. We've all been exposed. **All of us** ; so you either stand there and fight against me on every single thing I say that defies all science and medical principles you and me have ever known, or you can help me fight with me. You have to be able to fight _with me_ , Kowalski." the marten made a fist and brought it down on the patient's chest, reviving the animal.

Sirens blared in the distance. Yellow and blue lights splashed against the glass doors that led into the E.R. Emily sighed. "It's almost over…"

* * *

**Atlanta University, Atlanta, Georgia**

Down a flight of concrete stairs, the university's bunker was present. The empty area was as black as the ace of spades. So dark, you would start questioning whether you're dead or not. Kelsi turned the flashlight on, sending a beam of photons across the room that seemed to stretch for miles in the dark. Erik couldn't help to think that a monster would appear once the flashlight was on, like in some cheesy horror film.

"You're breathing heavily on my neck again." Kelsi reminded, aggravated.

"Sorry, my weak heart can't help it." Erik whispered.

Kelsi backed off, "It's fine. I know after the _last time_ , you've never been yourself since. It's the soft, sensitive part of you that I fell in love with in the first place, ya know." Kelsi smiled.

"Are you really doing this at a time like this?" Erik inquired.

"Just trying to shift your mind away from all this. I could just imagine what you're going through right now…" Kelsi replied, grabbing the fruit bat's paw.

She was right. His heart was pumping a million beats per minute. It felt like his heart was about to burst right out of his chest. His blood flowed through his veins, fueling his fight or flight response to whatever's to come. He couldn't help think that the _same thing_ was going to happen to them again. It happened years ago, but not complying to go visit with a therapist took a toll on his mentality. Ever since he experienced the worst day in his life, he's been afraid of everything. He wasn't a coward because he had an actual psychological reason for the deterioration of his fight or flight response; slowly shifting towards the _flight_ part of how his body reacts when in a dangerous, life threatening situation. Kyle and Raymond have always shifted towards the _fight_ part of their bodily response to said dangerous, life threatening situations.

He and Tanya had acquired mild post-traumatic stress disorder since the incident. Tanya was even more inflicted than Erik, a few years ago. He's never stepped inside the place since. Tanya returned to the venue two months ago with the help of rehabilitation therapy, therapy Erik refused to take.

Now, they were here; in the same situation. And Erik was dying inside.

Kyle stood by the door, peering out the small window that made a small fraction of the dark library visible. Red and blue lights continued to splash against the wooden shelves.

Naomi paced back and forth. "This is just like the school." the Japanese wolf began.

"This is not like the school." Kyle snapped.

"Yeah? How is this any different? We're in the same exact place. We're in the same exact position. How is this not like the school?" Naomi testified.

"We don't even know if this guy's telling the truth. It's been fifteen minutes and we haven't heard of him or anyone else since." Kyle dodged the question. "Any luck on your phone?"

"No reception, even though there's a hotspot no five feet away from us on the other side of this door." the canine leaned her head against the door.

Footsteps crept. "I seriously can't take another second down there." Erik said, climbing up the flight of stairs.

Kyle shook his head. "This is ridiculous." the grey wolf said annoyingly. He hated being a bystander in times like these. He was a doer; not a looker. "Screw this." the grey wolf opened the door.

"Kyle don't—!"

The grey wolf poked his head out. Red and blue lights still flashed. He ignored every word his friends were telling him. He stealthily made his way towards the book shelves, taking cover. Or, at least he thought he was moving stealthily across the library, his tail was up in the air like a cat.

He got on all fours and crouched, hiding himself from whatever was in the library, that's if there really was anything in the library.

Naomi followed behind him. She wasn't going to let Kyle get himself killed for his arrogance. That's when a gunshot blasted. Naomi flinched and nearly screamed. But someone did scream: Erik. Kyle reversed. "Go back!" the grey wolf whispered. Kelsi tried to calm a panicking Erik.

The fruit bat had bolted down the stairs, nearly tripping, and had reached the bunker. He was met with a brick wall, his only escape was blocked. _Who put this wall here? When was this here?_ Were the questions that were rocketing across the young mammal's mind. He began to scratch at the bricks.

"I can't, I just can't be here right now!" the fruit bat exclaimed. Kelsi grabbed the bat's arms.

"Erik, Erik listen to me! I know you want to get out of here and fly away, but that isn't an option now, and I know that it hurts and it's confusing and it sucks, but need to pull yourself together!" Kelsi yelled, pulling the fruit bat away from the wall.

Tears began running down his face. "It's happening again! I'm dreaming! I'm having another nightmare! I don't want to get shot just to wake up, let go of me!" Erik shouted, trying to pry Kelsi's hand off of his arm. The fruit bat was hyperventilating. His sides started to ache and his chest began to burn.

Kelsi caught on to the fruit bat's shortness of breath and pulled him closer, "Erik, you're _alive_! You're _hurting_! When you're hurting so bad that you can't breathe; that's when you know you're alive! Erik, you're alive! You're not dreaming!" Kelsi cried. Her face radiated with pain and heartache. Tears ran down her cheeks and her heart was accelerating.

Erik stopped thrashing around. With the deafening silence emptied his mind and brought him back to reality. He noticed that that wasn't a sharp pain in his chest and abdomen. He looked up at his tearful lover. He was _alive_.

"Kel… I'm- I'm so sorry." the fruit bat broke down. He wrapped his arms around the vampire bat and began to cry with the force of a person vomiting on all fours. It was torture. This is how his brain functioned now. It felt like his head collided with a sledgehammer and someone reached inside his chest and squeezed his heart. The two stood there in the dark; one holding the other for comfort.

* * *

**Twin Peaks Memorial Elementary School, Atlanta, Georgia**

Madison, the missing little girl Raymond found earlier, cackled as the lemur pushed her rideable toy vehicle down the main walkway just outside the school. Raindrops delicately touched her face; her fur swayed as the cool breeze ran past her face. The sounds of the sky clapping for her made her feel like she was flying in a way. Every time she closed her eyes, she would jump out of her body as the feeling of colliding with something in front of her climaxed.

Raymond was soaked with rainwater. Panting from the cardiovascular exercise, he began to feel the full force of aging. The risks of catching an aggressive cold increased as his sweat mixing with the cool rain and then drying back into his radiating skin. He almost didn't hear his girlfriend calling his name.

Tanya stood under the protection of the school's roof, shouting at the large lemur. She turned to the mother that just arrived moments ago.

"I'm so sorry; he gets like this when he's around kids." Tanya apologized.

"No worries, I've never seen Madison this happy in a while. He's got that fatherly touch." the older woman winked.

"Oh, we're not married." Tanya caught on.

"No?"

"Well, it's sort of complicated." Tanya's eyes met the cement. "Raymond's always wanted kids; we've just had some… complications." it hurt just talking about it.

"Complications?" the woman inquired.

"Raymond! Let's go, Kyle and the others have waited long enough!" Tanya yelled, dodging the question.

The lemur pushed the plastic vehicle back inside the school, water trickled down the smooth surface. Raymond wiped his face, peeling away the layer of fatty rainwater. "I apologize if we took so long. Madison here behaved extremely well." Raymond smiled.

"I can't thank you two enough; I'm forever in your debt." the mother placed her paw over her heart. "You ready to go?"

The little girl nodded her head. She wore a grin that stretched from ear to ear.

The mother's phone began to wail, calling for immediate attention. She reached inside her pocket and pulled out her smartphone. Her face became heavy as she read what the message read.

"What is it?" Tanya inquired.

"There's been a shooting somewhere…" the woman's face became pale.

"What?" Raymond let out in disbelief.

The woman faced the phone at the lemur. "Look,"

**Emergency Alert:**

**Police have reported unidentified armed civilians in this area. Take shelter. Check Local Media.**

"Oh my God…" Tanya gasped.

"Stay here," Raymond ordered as he rushed inside the front office. He entered his girlfriend's office and shifted through papers, looking for Tanya's smartphone.

"Dammit!" the lemur yelled in frustration. That's when he heard the sound of an object vibrating. He shifted through Tanya's purse (he never liked looking through her stuff), and found the cellphone that had the name ' **Goof** ' illuminated on the screen.

He 'swipe(d) to answer' and was met with the heavy breathing of a fruit bat.

"Erik! Are you guys alright? What happened?!" Raymond yelled frantically.

"R-Raymond, I'm in a restroom and there-there's a g…guy and he's bleeding profusely and I think hhe-he-he might d-die." the fruit bat stammered.

"Erik, listen to me, were there any people with guns at the college?" Raymond tried to calm himself down, his arm shaking with fear.

"There's so much b-b-blood, Raymond…"

"Give me the phone! Raymond, you need to come get us NOW! Whatever you two were doing this entire time needs to stop, get your asses over here no—"

"Erik? Erik?! ERIK?!" Raymond barked.

He looked at the screen.

**Call Ended**

"DAMMIT!" Raymond yelled, throwing the phone across the room. Its screen shattered on impact.

The sound of fighter jets blasting the lemur's eardrums caught Raymond's attention. The lemur ran outside of the office and ran towards the two grass doors and peered up in the sky. Two more jets rocketed across the sky as they made their way towards the city of Atlanta.

The lemur ran out of the front office and raced back to where Tanya and the little girl were. When he arrived, the mother and her daughter had already left. Tanya was already running in search of Raymond. Both looking for the other, they nearly crashed into each other.

"The hospital! It happened at the hospital; the shooting!" Tanya informed her partner, panting from running.

Raymond turned around and made a break for the parking lot on the opposite side of the school. Tanya sighed and followed the athletic lemur.

"We need to get Erik and the others. They seemed to be caught in the crossfire." Raymond alerted the lemur behind him.

"What?! How do you know this?"

"He called earlier; he seemed to be in shock from someone bleeding!"

"Christ, did he say who?" Tanya immediately regretted asking that question.

"No, but I can't stop thinking that it might have been one of them who got shot. I'm starting to think this has to be bigger than a shooting. You don't need fighter jets to stop a shooter unless there was a terrorist attack something much worse."

"Jesus Christ, what the hell is happening?"

"I have no earthly idea…"

The muscular lemur reached his truck, "Tanya, I want you to stay here."

"To hell with that, I'm going!" Tanya testified.

"I need you here! Make sure we have something to come back to! Going home isn't an option anymore, nowhere is safe; I need you to guard this place!" Raymond ordered, climbing inside his enormous truck. His survival instincts started kicking in.

A scream echoed from the surrounding neighborhood. Raymond slammed his door shut, "Keep this place safe! I'll be back!" the lemur yelled over the roar of the vehicle's engine.

"I'm _ready_! I'm _here_!" Tanya yelled. The screams continued.

"You're strong, I know that. But this is going to break you again, and I'm not ready give up everything we've built together yet. I love you and I know you'd follow me anywhere. I would too. That's why you have to stay here." Raymond responded. Tanya took that as a half-assed way of saying 'I love you, I don't want you to get hurt.'

"I hate you for this!"

"Your problem; go fix it!" Raymond yelled as he reversed out of the driveway. Tanya ran past the giant vehicle, finding a woman running out of her house and a man chasing her. Tanya glared at Raymond's truck as it drove off. She pulled out her handgun from its holster.

"Dammit…" the female lemur murmured as she rushed to the woman's aid

* * *

**New York City, New York**

After escaping the mob that was situated in front of headquarters, Skipper and Private drive down the crowded streets of New York City. People were running in every direction. Cars were all honking at each other, each ready to run over the other to escape the city's mysterious threat. Skipper and Private reached their destination: Times Square.

"I want you to stay here; listen to the radio or something." Skipper instructed as he placed the vehicle on PARK.

"You don't want me to help?" Private inquired. A crowd of people were beginning to migrate towards their area.

"This is just too much for your sake; I'll be right back, all right?" Skipper asked as he climbed out of the car.

Private nodded, "Aye, Skippah."

Skipper nodded and closed the car. The loud, overlapping conversations were silenced when the door shut. The silence felt eerie to the young penguin as more people walked around the vehicle and towards the crime scene. The car bounced as Skipper closed the door to the trunk, leaving with yellow police tape. Private unbuckled his seatbelt in order to reach the volume knob on the radio. He turned it up to twenty to block out the deafening silence, and began surfing through the stations.

Skipper walked up to the officer who stood over the body. The animal was small in size and was draped with a white table cloth. Skipper couldn't help but to curse under his breath at the sight.

"You! Put your cell phone away! This is a crime scene; you all need to get back!" the young officer yelled, reaching for his weapon.

"You won't need that unless you have a reason to shoot, officer." Skipper halted the young officer.

"Sheriff Skipper! Boy is it good to see your face here. We've got a situation on our hands" the officer informed.

"Would you mind explaining to me why the deceased is covered in a table cloth and not properly taken care of? And why do you and your partner—" he lost his thought when he saw the young woman crouching next to the dead body. Skipper's temper was reaching a breaking point. "Why is there a civilian next to the body?!" Skipper hastily questioned the young officers.

"She said that she's the man's wife—"

"You're not supposed to have civilians close to the body! Not EVER! Now you've got this whole situation running like some sort of circus act!" Skipper barked.

"I- I'm…"

Skipper interrupted by shoving the roll of yellow police tape into the officer's stomach, "You've done enough damage here; I want you and your friend away from here. After I have this under control, I want the both of you to head back to the HQ. I'll have a word with you and your partner once I'm done here." the sheriff said sternly.

The two young officers looked at each other. Skipper could read their faces. They each wore the 'We're totally fired' look. Good. That'll teach them for being ignorant. These newbies are going to be the death of the police force.

"We're sorry Sir," one of the officers apologized. The other one didn't say a thing. The little…

"Let's just make do with what we have. Get these people out of here!" Skipper barked.

The two jolted. "All right, people, let's move back, this is a crime scene! Move back!" the young officer barked, pushing the animals with iPhones, BlackBerrys, Nokias, and Galaxys. _If the world would ever end, no one would do anything besides film the damn thing._ Skipper thought to himself.

Skipper squatted next to the girl who was holding on to the deceased man's paw. "This your husband?" Skipper asked.

The woman sniffled, "Married fifteen years." she turned to the sheriff. "Today was our anniversary. It was my idea to some here. Today was supposed to be our day. Then this… oh God…" tears ran down her face.

"What's your name?" Skipper inquired.

"Cynthia," the woman answered shakily.

Skipper placed his flipper on the woman's shoulder. "What happened here?" he inquired.

"We… we were having lunch, then he started vomiting and he collapsed. I don't know why this would happen. He was fine just yesterday. He just got his dream job yesterday; we were planning on having a family, then this? Why would something like this happen?!" she questioned. "We were perfectly fine, w-why did this happen?" she cried out.

"He didn't… feel sick nor did any of you see anything unusual prior to today?" Skipper inquired.

"He… he said that he had a headache last week after he arrived here in N-New York. He came home a week- a week before what happened in San Francisco. I asked him if it had to do with anything during his trip. But he was fine. He didn't want to go, but I encouraged him to go. I shouldn't of… oh God what if this was my fault? I shouldn't- I shouldn't have told him to go… oh, Jonathan, why did you listen to me…?" she cried hysterically. It sounded like she was laughing almost.

Private finally found a station he actually liked: 'Good Morning, New York with Chuck Charles'.

"Good evening ladies and gentlemen." the anchorman's voice boomed out of the speakers. "It's currently forty-nine degrees Fahrenheit here in New York, and it's a bright and sunny Monday morning. First up, coming in from Albany, New York, an update from the reported riots in the capital city, we have journalist Drake Hamilton; Drake?" Chuck called.

Drake Hamilton. Private didn't really fancy Hamilton. His voice was always flat and boring. Private would sometimes lookup videos of him giving the news at night to help him sleep. He decided to change the channel.

"Drake? Are you still with us?" Chuck called again. Nothing. "Hmm. It appears we have lost him. Maybe got a little mix-up here in the station."

That wasn't like Drake. Sure, he was boring, but he always answered when called upon… For the first time ever, this caught Private's attention. He took his flipper off the dial.

"I'm afraid since our journalist in Albany isn't responding at the moment; we have Scott with an update on the crisis in San Francisco, Scott?" Chuck called. Private noticed the uneasiness in Charles' voice.

"Thank you, Chuck. The situation in San Francisco has worsened after catastrophe struck over at San Francisco General Hospital when a group of terrorists bombed and opened fire at hospital staff and patients." Scott answered gravely.

This made Private feel nauseous. Who would do such a thing?

"San Francisco is still under quarantine by the government, and is most likely to stay that way until the end of the year." Scott continued.

The flashing red and blue lights didn't faze the penguin at all. He was too invested.

"The city has since then been placed under martial law. Military personnel have entered the city five hours ago. Citizens have tried to leave the city during the exchange, causing even more panic and riots in the Californian city. All businesses have been shut down, excluding the hospital and medical research center. We still are in the dark for the reason why the city has been placed under quarantine; we will update you once we have an answer."

"Thank you, Scott. Joining us over the phone is Obi Tatenda, go ahead, Obi." Chuck called.

"Yes, thank you, Chuck. I have an idea on why San Fran has been quarantined. It's a lethal virus that's originated in San Francisco and the government is trying to keep from spreading outside the city. The only way they can find a cure is to find a cure inside the city, that's why they're only keeping the medical research center open, they're trying to find a cure to the virus that's already spread outside the city." Obi's voice trembled in fear.

"Obi, I'm not sure I'm following you," Chuck started.

"The virus is already outside the city. That's what's causing the riots over in Albany. They're not people causing the riots. They're trying to fight the infected. They're trying to contain the virus in secrecy! But they already know that the virus is at Phase Six, cross-contamination meaning that the virus is transmitting through every known organism on the planet!"

The ambulance arrived. Skipper placed his flipper on the woman's paw. "Cynthia, I'm afraid I'm going to ask you to come with me. The paramedics are here, they'll take extreme care of your husband. They'll give you the answers you need." Skipper coaxed.

People in yellow hazmat suits hopped out of the ambulance. They carried out a sort of incubated stretcher with them. Civilians around the area began to talk and question the 'aliens'.

Skipper looked up upon seeing people in the brightest suits he's ever seen. _Are you kidding me right now? Is anyone taking their job seriously?!_ Skipper thought. "Gentlemen, what's with the suits?" Skipper inquired.

Cynthia looked up in horror. She tightly grabbed Skipper's flipper.

"Please step away from the body. Don't touch anyone." one of the ridiculous looking paramedics ordered.

"There's a crowd gathered here and the two of you decide to wear _hazmat suits_? Are you trying to cause a _panic_?" Skipper questioned, gritting his beak.

"Wait, wait, are you telling me that this thing is already at global pandemic levels?" Chuck inquired. "That's just ridiculous."

" **YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHY SAN FRANCISCO IS QUARANTINED!** You're keeping the truth from trillions of already infected animals! The virus is here and it's beginning to mutate into stage five: ** _cytopathic reanimation!_** " the crazed man yelled.

"Hospitals are hiding the _dead_! They have to _burn_ them to help keep the truth from the public!" the panic in Obi's voice made it almost impossible to think that this man was just making all of this up. Private's heart began to beat rapidly. He wanted to turn the radio off, but something in him couldn't bring himself to do so.

"Sir, you _need_ to get away from the body! We need to get him isolated." the paramedic ordered sternly.

Skipper didn't like this entire situation. Everything that could have possibly gone wrong has gone wrong. "Ma'am…"

"What are they doing? Why are they dressed like that?" Cynthia started panicking.

"I'm sorry for your loss, but we need to get this body out of here, _now_!" the paramedic hissed.

"Ma'am…" Skipper started tugging on the woman's arm.

"No… no, not yet!" she yelled.

The paramedic uncovered the corpse. Blood had run down the man's eyes and mouth. The woman quickly turned and buried her face into Skipper's chest and began to weep. The sheriff embraced the woman. The paramedic grabbed the man's arm when the corpse exhaled.

"Obi, I'm going to have to ask you to calm down." Chuck suggested.

"They're covering this flu season with something bigger! People are dying from this virus and no one is talking about it!"

"Hey, what are they doing?"

"Where are they taking him?"

"I was eating next to them, what if I caught it?"

"Hey, where are you taking him?!" a man yelled.

The corpse's eyes began to open slowly. Skipper was frozen in place. The overlapping conversations and the crying from the woman made it hard to think clearly. Was he dreaming?

"What if we have what the man had?"

"Are we exposed? Hey, are we exposed?!"

"Get that animal out of here already!"

The corpse let out a raspy breath. The weeping woman turned around, seeing that her husband was alive. "Jonathan!" she yelled.

"No, ma'am!" the paramedic yelled.

The woman grabbed her husband's head. "Oh my God, you're alive!" she yelled in joy before kissing him. The reanimated corpse opened its mouth and violently ripped the woman's lips off, revealing her bloodstained teeth and gums. She yelled in agony as blood poured and splattered on the sidewalk.

People screamed in horror as they just witnessed a woman's face get torn off. The zombie went in again, this time biting the woman's lower jaw. The zombie pulled back and the woman's lower jaw was ripped from its hinges. An unforgettable pop sound and a bloodcurdling scream were engraved inside Skipper's mind when the woman's jaw was dislocated and ripped off of her skull. Blood sprayed the crowd. The woman collapsed.

Teeth and blood scattered the sidewalk as people ran away from the scene. Private jumped to the sound of a woman's scream. He looked out the back glass of the car. People were fleeing the scene. Private panicked and climbed out of the car.

"Cynthia!" Skipper called out, tending to the horrible injured animal. She was gargling on her own blood. Her bloodied tongue hung by the side of her face. Flaps of frayed flesh dripped with warm blood.

One of the young officers grabbed the reanimated corpse by the shoulders. "Stop it!" he yelled.

The deceased being shot its head down and tore into the young officer's arm. The officer shrieked as his furry flesh stretched and snapped, exposing the bone and muscle. The officer collapsed along with Jonathan.

"Michael!" his partner cried out.

Cynthia was on her side, making sure she wouldn't drown in her own blood. Skipper placed his flippers on the top of the woman's mouth, making sure he grabbed all he flaps of exposed skin. He left a small hole so that the woman could breathe. "I need help over here!"

The reanimated corpse took another bite at the officer's neck. Blood poured from the cervix and into Michael's mouth as he let out a piercing scream. The other officer pulled out his Glock and fired at the corpse. The zombie fell off its prey. The officer ran up to his friend and placed his paw over the fallen officer. "Stay with me Michael! Don't die on me, do you hear me?!" the officer cried as he saw his friend's life slowly drain from his eyes.

Private arrived at the scene. It was complete chaos. People were running into traffic, trying to escape the area. He witnessed an officer shoot at a civilian who was digging its teeth into a man's neck. There was so much blood and mangled flesh on the sidewalk. He watched Skipper trying to help a woman without a mouth onto a stretcher with men in yellow suits. And the most horrifying of all: the man with four bullets in its chest got back up. He stood there, petrified as the world around him came crashing down on him. 


	4. Not Fade Away: Part Four

**New York City, New York**

Hundreds of officers invaded the island of Manhattan, leading the circulation of vehicles out of the city. Hundreds of automobiles fled the megalopolis in fear of what the Emergency Broadcast was talking about. Some thought that the North Koreans finally found a way to nuke us, targeting New York City. Others feared for another terrorist attack, triggering those with PTSD after the September 11th attacks. Those who were smart enough to see it pointed their fingers at the flu that had been raging throughout the city for the past month or so.

Without traffic lights, people were practically running over each other trying to get out of the city, causing traffic accidents, stalling the evacuation of the entire city even more, causing even more people to panic; all adding to the gigantic shitstorm that was consuming the city of New York. With widespread panic, the usual looting and stampedes occur. People who were nearer to the area where a young officer shot an innocent man trying to talk to his wife were tipping police cars and breaking windshields.

Chants of "Fuck the police!" echoed through the streets, bouncing off the concrete skyscrapers, piercing the ears of an animal hundreds of yards away. The sounds of glass shattering and the screeching halts of tires also plagued the skies. The sounds that were audible above all others were the bloodcurdling screams of animals. The tearing of flesh and the splatter of entrails were added to the mix, only people didn't pay much attention to the screams of people dying; they just passed them off as other people screaming in panic. One of which was an officer named Rico.

Rico's option of taking a police vehicle was ripped away from his grasp as hundreds of cars began filling the streets along with terrified animals running in every direction, all wanting to leave the city.

The sounds of gunshots only added to his mentality of reaching his destination as fast as possible. His short legs quickened in speed; propelling him like a speeding bullet. He moved faster than most of the panicking animals around him, pushing most of them out of the way.

He reached an intersection with a steady flow of cars when he heard the spinning blades of a helicopter above his head. As he looked up, the iconic eye logo of _CBS_ looked upon the chaotic city of New York. The screeching tires of a vehicle brought his eyes back on the ground as a truck and an SUV collided at high speeds in the sea of racing cars.

The truck wrapped around the other vehicle as the SUV propelled both of them towards the penguin. Rico's flight response kicked in and his legs began contracting, projecting forwards out of the way of the giant heap of unrecognizable metal and glass.

Both cars rammed into two animals that were behind Rico, smearing their bodies against the pavement, leaving a large trail of blood and frayed flesh, and smashed into a store's support column.

Cars came to a halt around the intersection and Rico kept running, past the deadly intersection. Rico's was practically crying at the images of the flying mount of metal almost ending his life and how his body reacted so quickly. His heart was pumping out of his chest. His breath quickened and the lower right section of his abdomen began to cramp. His body was still trying to process what happened but Rico kept pushing on, which was dangerous for a penguin his age. People around his were still panicking, rioting, and running all around him. The car accident that just happened didn't even faze them. He kept on running.

Soon enough, he reached the street that would lead up to the Madison Square Garden. His cramps reached his chest, that's when the penguin stopped running. The penguin supported himself on a parking meter, hunched over and vomited, which only made the pain even more agonizing. Every breath he took only made his abdomen tighter, squeezing his sides and his insides. He let out a yelp as his heart felt like someone wrapping their hand around it and squeezing. The thought of a heart attack surfaced but was shut down immediately. Rico knew he was in shape; he never had any health problems before. This sudden shortness of breath and sharp pain came at a surprise to him.

The more he spent supporting himself, the more his body wanted to shut down. His peripheral vision caught the sight of a man launching himself onto a fleeing New Yorker. Rico set aside his body's screams for rest and pulled his handgun out of its holster.

"Ge' off 'im!" Rico managed to drive the sentence out of his throat.

The victim's shrieks became higher in pitch and his body thrashed violently as the predator tore into the back of the victim's neck, revealing the bloody points of the spinal column.

Rico fired his gun, sending lead deep into the attacker's back. The attacker fell off of its prey. Rico rushed to help the man but the sharp pain surfaced again, bringing him to a stop. The victim rolled over, screaming at the top of his lungs in horror and in pain as he felt around the back of his neck. An immense burning sensation in what felt like fire arose as his fingertips brushed against the open wound. His fingers glazing over the points of his vertebrae only caused his entire body to jerk when he pressed against one of them.

The attacker seamlessly rolled over and sank its jagged teeth into the man's neck, severing his jugular vein, splashing blood against the attacker's fur. Blood quickly ejected out of the wound and sprayed the sidewalk and both himself and the attacker.

Rico watched in horror before he fired his gun again, this time piercing the assailant's neck, which only knocked him down for a few seconds before he began chewing on the man's exposed windpipe. He fired a third shot, penetrating the attacker's shoulder. That's when the attacker turned around and his dead eyes met Rico's. The reanimated corpse opened its mouth and hissed at the officer, exposing the bloody teeth that had mangled flesh in between its teeth.

The low hiss sent shivers down Rico's spine. He lowered his flipper and fled the scene. Luckily, the street had a steady flow of vehicles, so his many years of playing 'Frogger' as a child really payed off. His eyes darted down the extensive street that carved a path through the city, catching a fuel truck driving in his direction. He didn't know why, but once he locked eyes with the vehicle, time stood still. Past the vast ocean of panicking animals, this one transport truck was just casually driving in the midst of all the chaos. Once he heard the hiss of the atrocity he left behind, everything caught up with itself. Whatever that was, was not… normal. He's dreaming. He had to be dreaming. All of this is just a nightmare that will have an end.

Gunshots echoed again. They were coming from where Skipper had assigned him to. A cream colored smoke began to crawl from the corners of buildings. He just had to make one right turn, and he'll reach his post. The faster he ran, the more intense the pain in his abdomen and chest intensified.

He made it to the end of the road when he caught the first images of the Madison Square Garden swarmed by hundreds of people running out of the building. Red and blue lights splashed against the brick and concrete walls of the surrounding buildings. Dozens of police officers were stations at each of the four entrances of the arena. Rico jogged passed the panicking animals and met up with one of the officers.

The constable turned, handing the walkie talkie in his hand to another person. "Thank Christ you're here, must've been utter hell trying to get over here."

Rico nodded.

"We've got a large group of people inside causing havoc. Supposed to be a game today, so we've got hundreds of hostages. At a time like this, can you believe that?"

Rico opened his mouth before getting cut off by the officer, "Eh, don't answer that. SWAT's moved in a couple of minutes ago, the people you see pouring out are the lucky ones, the people closest to the entrance who were too scared to move even though safety's literally just around the corner. You've been hearing what's been going on lately?"

Rico opened his beak again.

"Evacuation of the entire city of New York; can you believe that?" the constable inquired.

Rico kept quiet by this time. "My buddy Matthew's been hearing something about people dropping like flies in the streets and others just tearing at each other's limbs, cannibalism of some sorts. While he's out there in the carnage, I'm here standing out here like an idiot. I guess I shouldn't thank Christ for you being here since it's boring as hell. Why Skipper send you here anyways?" A swarm of people began exiting the arena all at once. There was no sign of the SWAT team.

Rico grabbed the officer and turned the man's body around. His eyes widened. "Alright boys, here we go!" the man yelled as he ran up to the panicking animals swarming the streets.

Rico stayed put. He turned to where he last saw the man who endured three bullets to the torso. People were all running in the same direction this time, away from where he saw the man.

The penguin slowly walked forward. The swarm of people merged with the swarm of people that were coming from the opposite direction. A gunshot made him jump. The blast didn't sound far away, it sounded like it came from right behind him.

The penguin spun around and was greeted images of the talkative officer having his throat ripped apart by a woman. Same as the man he saw earlier. Rico's heart began to accelerate once again. The same hissing sounds began to intensify. The expressions of people's faces withdrawing from the arena shifted from a petrified look, to a more sinister, more threatening one.

They weren't screaming in fear anymore. The shrieks of fear were gradually being cancelled out by the sounds of people gargling on water or some sort of liquid in the back of their throats. They were all crying out in mindless hunger for flesh.

Another gunshot blasted; another person hit the floor. The officer couldn't tell which the attackers were and which the civilians were. He tried to aim, he tried to help; but in reality, he was firing aimlessly at the swarm of animals stampeding out of the arena.

Rico's body shut down all at once. He froze with fear for the first time in his life. Officers were being tackled and ripped apart just a few yards away from him. Right behind him, another wave of reanimated corpses came running down the motorway. The screams, the gunfire, the sounds of tires skidding across the asphalt and crashing into other vehicles and bodies, Rico stood there as he slowly went deaf over all the intense noises of the apocalypse. This is how the end of the world would sound like. This is the end of the world, and all he could do was stand there in the middle of it.

Something had crashed into Rico's back, pushing him out of the way of the fuel truck's path. Its driver had been bombarded with stray bullets and the front tire had exploded for the same reason by the officer who was firing aimlessly, now being eaten alive. The semi-truck barely brushed past Rico's tail feathers. The vehicle rammed into the many officers, civilians, and reanimated corpses, spraying blood in every direction. The oil truck collided with the entrance filled with animals; its nose collapsed in on itself, crushing the tank of natural gas behind it, releasing the prehistoric air before the engine quickly caught fire. With the ignition of the flaming engine, the tank went up in flames before exploding, spreading the incandescent gasses and igniting the air. Scorched concrete and body parts were sent billowing into the air like a geyser. It would be a while before any of them would even begin plummeting back towards the earth.

It seemed like a fist of red-orange flare had beaten its way out of the arena. Officers and civilians just a few yards away suffered third-degree burns as they felt their flesh boiling and sizzling and their fur being incinerated from the blistering ball of fire. The shockwave shattered glass panes and eardrums. Rico had the air sucked out of his lungs for a spit second. The sound of the blast reverberated across the city as car alarms wailed chaotically.

Rico's lungs desperately tried to take in air, making it the penguin act like a fish out of water. Blood began to run down on each side of his head where his ears were hidden by his feathers. White noise cancelled out the blaring noises of the city in distress, though he could faintly hear something being repeated that didn't sound like a car alarm. The feeling of his right flipper slowly faded. The pounding of his heart made his face throb with every beat. He began to feel the blistering of his back, howling in agony by the blinding pain. His entire back had been softly kissed by fire, yet that was enough to make a man like Rico cry out for mercy. He felt arms around his chest and head. He couldn't open his eyes from the intense sensitivity of his exposed posterior.

"ri-o… r-co… rico… ico… RI-O… **RICO**!" the man's voice echoed.

The floor around him began to darken as the smoke cloud hovered over him. Shrieks of frightened and maimed animals grew exponentially. Pellets of dust and debris fell around the officer. His body was screaming, telling him to get up and run away from whatever was happening, but Rico couldn't move at all. Rico's eyes shot open. The person on top of him (who had also saved his life) was none other than Skipper.

"Get up! Rico, I need you to **GET UP!** " the sheriff snarled, tears forming in his icy blue eyes. "Rico it's me, _Skipper_! And as your commanding officer, I'm ordering you to **_GET UP!_** " Skipper was practically foaming at the mouth. Behind him, jets soared across the grey sky. When he met eyes with Skipper again, the sheriff faded away, revealing the actual person trying to wake him up.

"GET UP!" the officer yelled. "C'mon man, you've got to get up! I'll drag you across the fucking city if I fucking have to!" the officer shook Rico's shoulders.

He's dreaming. He had to be dreaming. All of this is just a nightmare that will have an end.

* * *

**Outskirts of New York-Presbyterian/Queens Hospital, New York City, New York**

Stetson drove the police cruiser behind the hospital, down 141st Street, driving past the adjoining suburbs. After receiving news about the four-one-five back in the heart of the city, Stet had offered to go and help instead of Kowalski; standing around a hospital filled with possibly dying people takes a toll on a person's soul, especially upon a person like Stetson. He sort of hated hospitals in general. Sure they're practically the safest place on earth, but with all the death in the air, it just deteriorates your mentality knowing that there are people in need of help and you just can't really help them. There are surgeons and other doctors yes, but Stetson became a police officer to be the person who saves people in a way. Yes there's the duty to enforce the law of the United States of America upon its citizens, but he always wanted to _truly_ help save a person's life. Just standing by knowing that there's people dying around him and knowing he's not skilled enough in the position saving them made him depressed. He's always hated the fact of not doing anything, so when the four-one-five was alerted, of course Stetson would try and take it. He wanted to get as far away from that place for at least a few hours. But then there's the thought of his soon to be wife.

He had only purposed to Emily a few days ago. They had been dating for two years and he felt that the time was right, that she was the one; she was the one who he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. Emily felt a little indifferent about the subject of marriage, but he never really saw that. With their busy schedules, they wouldn't be bored of each other so easily like so many other couples. They'd work endlessly, get home, eat dinner (which mostly consisted of fast food) together, and screw around in between the sheets (that's if they were lucky enough to have had enough energy to do so) for whatever time they had together before one of them gets called back into duty.

Emily was the first person Stetson had true feelings for (and was the first real relationship he had since middle school). Stet was never good at keeping relationships; they would always end by complete mishap or by the "this isn't going to work out" way.

The bird took a left, passing the short branch of modern houses before taking a right, down 142nd Street. Once there, it would be smooth sailing before making a left to attach to the highway. Stet sought through every channel on the radio, none of which seemed to spark his interest. He had brushed past the channel Chuck Charles was on, only catching something about San Francisco or Los Angeles or some city in the West.

The midday sunlight was hidden behind a great wall of puffy clouds that made its way across the cool sky. There were several more cars on the street than usual; made it seem like late noon was the new rush hour.

Coming towards the end of the road, his CB radio lit up. Static drowned out whoever was talking until a female's voice materialized.

"We've got reports of a disturbance on 84th and 150th Queens. Woman mentioned someone one attacking but she cut off before I could ask her." the lady officer broadcasted.

' _Shit_ ,' Stet thought to himself. ' _That's where the Penguins live._ ' Marlene quickly came into mind.

He flipped a switch on his dashboard, turning on the police siren and blinding red and blue beacons. He took a right, driving around the block and joined up with the road that'll take him straight to Marlene's dilemma.

* * *

**Atlanta University, Atlanta, Georgia**

After hearing the gunshot, Kyle and Naomi hastily ran back inside the school's bunker. The male wolf was careful not to make the metal door slam shut, giving their whereabouts to the gunman. He turned to Naomi after sealing the doors; she had her front paws on the brick wall, looking like if she was about to be searched by a police officer. She began to hyperventilate.

Kyle placed his paw on her shoulder. "This is not like last time, I'm not going to let you become like Erik. It's not safe up here; I need you to go down stairs with the others." the grey wolf ordered. Even he was having a surge of repressed memories racing through him.

"No," the female wolf sniffled. "I'm staying up here."

"I can't let you. I'll never forgive myself if I get you hurt again."

"God, you're just like Raymond. You know that I'm able to handle this, I got better. I am _not_ going to let you treat _me_ like how Raymond treats _Tanya_." Naomi replied sternly.

Kyle showed a weak smiled. "Good."

A second gunshot made both canines jump. Kyle looked out the small window on the door. He couldn't make out anything; the book shelves were blocking most of his field of view. Another gunshot blasted.

"Go!" Kyle sharply whispered, making his way down the stairs.

"Kel… I'm- I'm so sorry." the fruit bat broke down. He wrapped his arms around the vampire bat and began to cry with the force of a person vomiting on all fours.

"Erik? Is that you? Why are you crying?" Kyle whispered in the dark.

The fruit bat sniffled. "Kyle?"

"What's going on up there?" Kelsi inquired.

The rattling of the doors upstairs made Erik clench Kelsi tighter. All heads shot towards the noise. Kyle looked around the large room. There was nothing in here besides his friends; nothing to protect themselves with, just piles of dust and rusty old, broken pipes. Pipes. _'I might be able to find one on the floor like in the movies. There's gotta be a lone pipe around here somewhere...'_ Kyle thought to himself. But his search for the blunt object fell short due to a familiar voice.

"Hey, are you guys still there?" a voice echoed.

"Holy shit, isn't that the guy that trapped us in here?" Kelsi inquired.

Kyle didn't even hear what the vampire bat had said because he bolted up the stairs after hearing the unnamed man's voice. Once he reached the top of the concrete stairs, his self-conscious caught him in his idiocy. _'What if it's secretly the gunman who's just manipulating the guy who helped us hide in order to gain our trust and wipe us all out?'_ Kyle thought to himself. With that thought planted in his brain, he stopped himself from continuing further.

Naomi lightly tapped Kyle's shoulder. "You probably forgot that he gave us a flashlight. I saw you searching the floor, probably for a weapon of some sorts, so…" the female wolf held out the flashlight, raising a brow.

"Right…" the grey wolf laughed nervously, grabbing the blunt object. He held it over his head, ready to strike, and quickly opened the door.

"Hey, are you guy– WAIT, I'M NOT THE SHOOTER!" the animal flinched at the sight of Kyle's arm plummeting towards his head.

Kyle stopped himself in time, "Holy shit, I'm sorry!" the grey wolf stammered.

"Is it safe out?" Naomi poked her head out.

"It is; the military's on their way." the animal replied, clenching his chest.

"Kelsi, Erik! We're getting out of here!" Naomi called out to her friends.

"That's us, you ready?" Kelsi inquired, placing her claws on Erik's shoulders solid shoulders.

The bat took a deep breath. "I'm really not, but I just want this hell to be over with."

"That's the spirit." Kelsi held her lover's paw, "One step at a time." the vampire bat's heart began quickening in pace. If only police officers were here to help him out, then Erik would truly feel safe. Looking up at the stairs above him, Erik took another deep breath. To most people, these were just ordinary stairs, but to him, it felt like he was going to climb Mount Everest. Reaching the summit would feel like actually reaching the top of a mountain. He would be a step closer towards getting better, and it would be glorious.

"What the hell is going on out there?" Kyle asked the man.

"Well, after being under lockdown because of the shooter at the hospital, someone at the dorms began throwing a fit. It didn't take long before more and more people joined him. These cops are shooting at them." the man replied.

" _They're the ones shooting?!_ I thought the shooter had found his way here! What the hell are they doing that for?!" Kyle barked.

"Keep quiet!" the man sharply whispered.

Up the stairs, Kelsi and Erik slowly made their way out of the bunker. "What's taking you guys so long?" Naomi inquired.

"Do I really have to answer that?" Kelsi asked in a sarcastic tone, turning her head at the shaking leaf that was her lover. "Almost there, Erik." she comforted. The poor fruit bat was having a heart attack on the spot.

"Is that all of you?" the man inquired.

"That's everyone." Naomi answered.

"All right then, let's get moving. There's no telling how many of them are out there." the man ordered, leading everyone out of the library.

"Who are you talking about? What's going on out there? Why are the cops shooting people?" the grey wolf inquired as even more questions spewed out of his mouth.

"Jesus, you ask a lot of questions…" the man murmured.

"Well, it would help if your answers weren't so goddamn vague."

"Listen, it's really bad out there. Apparently the entirety of New York had issued a state of emergency after riots broke out in its major cities. There are people saying that Atlanta might fall just like New York City did." the man whispered.

"What happened in New York City?"

"A whole lot of shit went down over at NYC. They're saying that it's been bombed and that it's utter chaos in the North Eastern states. Whatever's going on, it's spreading across the whole Eastern seaboard." the man responded grimly.

"Does it have to do with the flu that's been spreading?" Naomi inquired.

"I don't know for sure, but rumors are spreading like wildfire and I definitely heard someone mentioning the flu." the man answered.

"We never really caught your name," Naomi began.

"It's Ezekiel. Now, are there any more questions for me?" Ezekiel inquired.

"I've got one–" Kyle began but was cut off by the horrific scene that was being played in the hallway that led out of the library. In the large, dark corridor, what sounded like someone tearing a fine piece of silk was actually the sound of a person tearing at their own flesh. The custodian that Kelsi saw earlier was digging into his own arm, tearing the muscles from his forearm and shoving each piece into his bloody mouth.

Everyone stood frozen at the sight of the cannibal. Blood ran down his chin, dripping onto the tiled floor.

"What the hell i-is… he doing?" Kyle stammered, breaking the choking silence.

Ezekiel began approaching the custodian.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Kyle sharply whispered.

"Sir?" Ezekiel called.

"Ezekiel, leave him alone! We should take the back exit!" Kyle yelled.

Erik fixed his eyes on the fire extinguisher to his left.

"Sir, can you hear me?" Ezekiel reached an arm out.

The custodian stopped consuming his mangled flesh and slowly faced the approaching ferret. Its saucer eyes pierced into the ferrets'. Tears began running down the man's eyes as he rose from the bloodied floor.

"Please help me… I can't s-stop–" the janitor stammered.

Ezekiel felt a little safer hearing these words. They told him that this man wasn't totally insane; he's hurting in some way that doesn't involve the process of eating his own flesh. He sees that something's making him do this; this person isn't doing this on purpose. With this in mind, Ezekiel walked normally towards the injured man. It was quite a beautiful scene. It looked like a mother looking after and taking care of a stray, wounded child, a soul. Of course, this all came crashing down when the custodian grabbed Ezekiel's arm and sunk its teeth into the ferret's wrist.

Blood spewed from the exposed artery. The cannibal pulled its head back, stretching and snapping the layer of skin and tendons. The ferret's ulnar nerve got wedged in between the custodian's front teeth. The cannibal went in for a second bite, grinding more of the exposed nerve.

Kyle jolted towards the attacker and hurled his fist straight at the custodian's right cheek. Naomi caught the screeching ferret from falling on the ground.

"His wrist! Someone help me with his wrist!" Naomi yelled, wrapping her paws on the ferret's open wound.

Kelsi ran up to Naomi, helping applying pressure on Ezekiel's frayed wrist. She could feel the exposed bone, the warm blood seeping through her fingers, and whatever muscle was left, shifting and compressing.

Erik just stood there petrified. His entire body went numb. Pins and needles slowly crept and oppressed the palms of his paws and scaled up his legs. His head felt heavy as his depth of view expanded and collapsed. Everything in front of him contracted and grew further away from him while everything else around the center of his vision crept closer to him.

Kyle sent another powerful kick onto the custodian's stomach. Once his foot made contact, the custodian grabbed the wolf's extremity, knocking the canine down. Naomi caught this and turned to Erik.

"ERIK!" Naomi shrieked. "HELP HIM!" she cried.

At an instant, his center view slingshotted back into the fruit bat's view. Regaining his vision, he witnessed the attacker climbing over Kyle, clawing at his friend. He wanted to run. His heart was screaming for him to run. The flight part of his body's response was blaring in agony. But his mind had another path for him to follow. Fear induced adrenaline kicked in. Defying what his heart was screaming for, he grabbed the fire extinguisher and his short legs carried him towards his friend. He raised the blunt object over his head and brought it down with all his might.

The edge of the fire extinguisher made contact with the back of the custodian's neck. The thin layer of skin tore open and a loud, spine chilling pop echoed throughout the length of the hallway.

The assailant came crashing down. The wolf quickly threw him off his chest, fearing that he might tear into him. Kyle quickly grabbed the custodian's uniform and ripped it off of him. He picked himself up and patted Erik on the shoulder before rushing to help Naomi and Kelsi.

Erik stood over the custodian who was trying to catch his breath. His body began twitching for a few seconds before the man went limp.

"Here," Kyle handed the thin shirt to the female wolf.

"Alright Kelsi, I want you to move your hand off the wound at the count of three. You're going to see blood spurting out, but I don't want you to put your hand back. I know you're going to want to, but please for the love of God, don't." Naomi instructed, stretching the shirt with her free paw.

"Okay, okay, you don't have to talk to me like I'm a damn kid, you know." the vampire bat scoffed.

Naomi tore a sleeve off with her mouth and tossed it to Kyle.

"Here, make a ball out of that." she ordered.

The fire extinguisher slipped past Erik's claws, hitting the ground. He collapsed as his body began going through withdrawal. He wrapped both wings around his body as his mind began processing what he had just done. His mind gagged at the thought of staying and fending off the assailant and his stomach responded by emptying itself out. His body contracted as the warm, soupy, acidic retch spewed out of his mouth and splatted against the tiled floor.

"Oh, God!" Erik managed to croak in between heaves.

"One… Two… Three!" Naomi yelled, hastily removing her paw off of Ezekiel's wound.

Blood began trickling down the ferret's wrist once again. The female wolf placed the rolled up piece of shirt on the wound and wrapped the remaining cloth around the wrist and along the hand to keep it from slipping off.

"Hang in there," Kyle comforted the injured ferret.

"Trying… Whatever you're doing… feels like fire ants c-crawling inside my skin…" Ezekiel huffed.

A gunshot blasted. Kyle and Erik looked down the hallway. Another gunshot blasted followed by bloodcurdling screams.

"We need to go." Ezekiel wheezed.

Kelsi stared at the dead animal that was just a few feet away from her. "This guy, is he the people you were talking about? Are the people the cops shooting at like him?" Kelsi inquired, not taking her eyes off the custodian.

Ezekiel stayed quiet. Naomi looked up at Kyle. The male wolf shook his head. The sound of jets shook the floor. Helicopter blades came and faded.

"We should get going now." Kyle broke the silence.

"Help me get him up." Naomi said, wrapping Ezekiel's arm around her neck.

Kelsi walked over to the stiff fruit bat. Erik stared blankly at the dead man in front of him. The vampire bat placed her paw on Erik's shoulder.

"You all right? At this rate, you'll literally be puking your guts out." Kelsi inquired.

Erik shook his head. "I think I just killed a man, Kelsi." the mammal shivered.

Kelsi faced the man that lay on the ground in a small pool of blood. "Well, I ain't checking his pulse if that's what you want. I'm not getting anywhere near him. But even if you did, you had to. He was going to kill Kyle." Kelsi reassured.

"You don't understand." Erik replied.

Kelsi sighed. "I never understand _anything_ , don't I?"

"What?" Erik inquired.

Lightning flashed, illuminating everything in the library for a few milliseconds. Erik jumped by the sound of the thunderclap that followed afterward. The rain started pounding harder against the windows.

"Alright, we need to get the fuck out of here _now_." Kyle acknowledged.

Kelsi helped the fruit bat get back up on his feet. Erik watched as both wolves carried the injured ferret ahead of them. Ezekiel's face looked like it was melting right off his skull. His lips grew pale and his eyes were bloodshot. There was something about him that seemed off.

As the quintet moved down the dark hallway, lightning struck multiple times. At the end of the hall, light was illuminating from the right side, suggesting that there were probably a set of doors that led out to the outside. With every thunderbolt, the light magnified in intensity, lighting up half of the entire corridor.

Erik stopped running. "Stop!" the fruit bat exclaimed.

"What the hell's the matter?" Kyle growled.

"Please tell that's not what I think it is…" Erik pointed ahead of them.

Up ahead, a silhouette lurked around the side of the hallway.

Kyle took a couple steps back. "Hey, are you okay?" the wolf inquired. ' _This person's too close to the exit; we can't risk encounter with another crazy person._ ' Kyle thought to himself.

The silhouette grew larger, indicating that it was walking towards them

"Is it too late to go back for the fire extinguisher?" Erik stammered.

Lightning struck again, illuminating the person's face. She had half her face hanging on by a thread and an eyeball missing from its socket. Kyle's eyes widened.

"Oh my God–" Naomi whispered.

"Go back- GO BACK!" Kyle yelled. The woman began walking briskly towards them.

Erik turned his body, only to be greeted with the custodian from earlier. Kelsi was able to pull him out of the man's grip in the nick of time.

"IN HERE!" Kelsi screamed, running towards the girl's restroom. She threw Erik inside, holding the door open for the wolves and Ezekiel. She slammed the door shut and locked it; the two people on the other side crashed into the only thing separating them and their prey. Faint gunshots could be heard, each growing in intensity. It sounded like a war as raging on outside. Only, there was.

* * *

**Times Square, New York City, New York**

Blood painted the brick walls and Plexiglas windows of the restaurant. Distant police and ambulance sirens blared, bouncing off the walls of skyscrapers. Red and blue lights splashed up against the walls at irregular intervals, almost cancelling out natural color from reflecting onto people's eyes. Everything was red for a good two seconds, then blue for another two seconds.

Private stood in horror as he watched Skipper lift a deformed and bloodied woman off the sidewalk and on to a stretcher. He could see the veins protruding from Skipper's neck as he barked at the paramedics.

The young penguin's body froze in fear. He'd never seen so much blood before in his life. The only instances that would come into mind would be in horror movies he and his friends would watch on Halloween and on a medical drama Marlene would watch, but in real life?

Private's face became pale after seeing Skipper turn around, revealing his blood-soaked anterior. Blood stained his flippers, his belly, and his parts of his chest. Skipper's eyes slowly shifted and met with Private's. Everything was moving in slow motion, yet in reality, everything around him was moving a million miles a minute. Like a black hole. The closer you get to the center, the more time slows, while time moves rapidly behind you all at the same time.

His body didn't even flinch when he heard the gunshot that came out of Skipper's gun. The bullet impacted the zombie's chest, shredding his lung. Skipper grabbed the crying officer by the back of the neck and pulled him up. Private could see Skipper's beak moving, but no words were going into his ears, they were just fluttered with white noise.

Skipper swung his flipper around and swept Private off of his feet. That's when the roaring shrieks of the apocalypse penetrated the young penguin's ears, pounding against his eardrums.

"Wait, MICHAEL! LET GO OF ME!" the young officer cried, reaching for his best friend who was getting further and further away from him. Soon, his body was swarmed by a group of ravenous animals.

As Skipper approached his police cruiser, three people were rocking it back and forth. The sheriff pointed his gun up in the air and fired. People around him flinched at the small explosion.

"Get off the car! GET OFF THE CAR!" Skipper barked as the trio fled from the scene.

The sheriff opened the side door and shoved Private in. He then opened the passenger seat and grabbed the other officer.

"No! I'm not going with you!" the officer exclaimed, pushing Skipper away.

"We need to head back to base! Something's going on that people aren't telling us and it's getting people killed! We need to get everyone off the streets and out of New York now!" Skipper barked, slapping the crying officer.

Private held both flippers against his ears trying his hardest to block out the deafening noises outside the car. From bloodcurdling shrieks to gunshots, he didn't want to hear any of it.

"Now, GET INSIDE!" Skipper snarled, pushing the officer inside the vehicle like an escaped convict.

The sheriff quickly waddled around the car, stopping in time to see a reckless driver hauling a giant glistening heavy duty truck down the road filled with panicking animals, bumping into cars and nearly running over other faunae. He watched as a clear liquid went dripping down the bumper and exhaust. Catching this, he faced where the truck came from. On the asphalt, a trail of fluid was left behind. He turned back at the truck, on the back, it read:

**CAUTION: GASOLINE**

Skipper's eyes widened. He practically threw himself inside the driver's side. He buckled his seatbelt and turned the keys to ignite the engine. Down the road, a hooded man with a Molotov came running out of the chaos of fleeing people. Skipper shifted the gear and pressed hard on the gas. The vehicle launched forwards, nearly ramming into a wave of civilians. The truck had no diver for it was covered in a flammable substance.

"You better get a firm grip on something soon." Skipper advised.

"F-for what?" the officer stammered.

Private turned around and peered out the rear windshield just in time to watch a man throw a flaming bottle at a glazed transportation truck. The bottle shattered in a magnificent explosion of orange fire that wrapped around the entire truck. The whole truck went up in flames in a matter of seconds.

"Private, get down!" Skipper barked.

A blinding light flashed, blinding the young penguin; followed by the shockwave. The windows exploded from the sheer intensity of the ball of fire that swallowed buildings whole. The blast's radiating heat could be felt yards away from the blast zone. The smoke later ignited, scorching the earth and everything around it.

The blast sent shards of glass to cut Private's face, one nearly digging into his right eye. It pushed the car forwards, causing Skipper to lose control of the vehicle. The car swerved, coming up on an intersection. Skipper opened his eyes only to see a U-Haul hurling straight at them.

The U-Haul truck slammed into the other officer's side. The truck's nose collapsed like someone compressing a water bottle horizontally. Skipper's car wrapped around the U-Haul truck and was flung to the other side of the intersection. The cop car toppled over and began rolling across the road.

Glass and other small objects were being tossed around Skipper's car, slicing at him in at every direction. There was a moment where everything felt like it was floating. All Skipper could hear was Private's body being thrashed around in the back seat.

The car finally came to a halt after slamming into the side of a small store. Skipper's seat belt had torn, which was why he was laying on the car's interior roof with his legs and pelvis leaning on the driver's seat. His head laid on the asphalt, his neck pressed up against the remnants of the broken windshield.

His eyes peered off into the distance. His couldn't feel anything. He couldn't move his legs or his arms. His body was under the mercy of shock. His breathing became erratic as his vision slowly blurred. Was this it? Was this the way he was going to die? Death by car accident during New York's darkest hour? Maybe. Maybe this was the end. Maybe this is the way it ends.

All of these thoughts rushed through his brain all while it was screaming in agony. His brain was preoccupied by his injuries, getting ready to take on every inch of pain once the state of shock diminished. But, what if his state of shock doesn't go away? Maybe he's losing blood rapidly without even knowing it?

Before he could even properly think, all of a sudden his vision was slightly getting better, enhancing with every second. He narrowed his eyes to get a better focus. There in front of him, Private laid in a pool of blood. His eyes widened; and all at once, his senses came rushing back like a roaring tsunami crashing onto a small island.


	5. Not Fade Away: Finale

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd also like for you to listen to two songs while reading this. The first song's "Into the Fire" by Erin McCarley. The second one's "Sinking Man" by Of Monsters and Men.
> 
> Whenever you see this symbol ':', that's the signal for you to start playing the song (if you want to)!
> 
> For the first signal, play "Into the Fire", and for the second symbol, play "Sinking Man". It's not that hard to do.
> 
> So get them tracks ready and enjoy (pls)!

**Times Square, New York City, New York**

**:**

Skipper shifted his body; his legs came crashing down to his right, accidentally hitting the officer next to him. He turned his head, facing the upside-down policeman. His belt hadn't ripped. Skipper reached for the officer's neck, widening the cuts on his right pectoral muscle.

He felt around for a pulse. He couldn't find one.

He held his flipper over the animal's nostrils. No air made contact with his flipper, signifying that he had stopped breathing. He was dead.

He withdrew his flipper, groaning at the sudden sharp pain that emitted from the right side of his body. He must've smashed into the center console while the car was being flipped. He fixed his gaze outside. Private seemed motionless. Or maybe he had been paralyzed and he can't move at all. Or maybe his body was in shock, causing temporary paralysis. Or. . . he was dead. . .

The sheriff placed his right bloodied flipper forward. A stabbing sensation erupted on his right side again. He dragged himself out the side window. He placed his left flipper forward and dragged himself again. He let out a few pained grunts as he advanced a few more inches.

Drops of blood fell by the side of his head. A large gash had opened down the side of his left eye socket. His heart was beating its way out of his chest. His entire body was emitting heat like an oven. He had bruised two of his ribs, which made breathing feel like being stabbed with every breath.

"Private. . .!" the sheriff managed to say, leaving his lungs feeling like they had been squeezed.

He tried standing, but the earth below him began to shake with the sound of incoming fighter jets. His wobbly legs gave way, and he plummeted towards the hard ground, landing on his right side.

"ACK!" Skipper let out, a look of anguish crossed his face. He opened his eyes, meeting the young officer's motionless body that was just a few feet away from him.

He picked himself up again; every move made was a step closer towards his body completely shutting down from exhaustion. He took a step forward, putting pressure on his left foot. A piercing pain erupted from his ankle. He quickly lifted it off the ground and balanced himself on his right foot.

He thought it was broken. He put pressure on his foot again. Upon seeing that it wasn't bending in the opposite side, or at an awkward angle, signified that his ankle wasn't broken.

The sheriff limped towards the young officer. A tear escaped his eye and ran down his cheek. The sight right in front of him was just heart wrenching. His heart felt weak yet it was beating profusely. The sight of Private's body on the ground, motionless was like something out of a movie or newspaper article.

This young, innocent soul was caught in between the chaos of the world. He's too young for this. This never should have happened. How could he have let this happen? What could he have possibly done to deserve this? The boy just wanted to help. He wanted to look after some kids at the office just this morning for Christ's sake!

Skipper tried to do everything he could to prevent such things from happening to Private, but no matter what he could possibly do; it's never going to truly help prevent or protect them from whatever life throws at him. When Private wanted to be an officer, it scared Skipper to death. Sending many years as a police officer, Skipper had seen some of the most horrifying things anyone could ever think about. He feared it would corrupt a young mind like Private, but amazingly, the penguin survived.

And now this.

It's one of the most horrifying and terrifying things anyone could ever experience. You'd think you'd be prepared when something like this would ever happen, but that's never the case. No one is ever safe from the mercy of the living.

"Private!" Skipper cried. More tears flooded his eyes.

He heard a faint groaning sound coming from the injured avian. The sheriff knelt down, slowly turning the young penguin around.

Private let out a pained cry, " _OW!_ "

"Sorry; can you move your arm?" the sheriff sniffled. Private's feathers protected his body from most of the shards of glass that was flying around in the car, but not all of them. A few hairline cuts were scattered across his chest and legs. Half of the young penguin's face was soaked in blood. A large gash was present on the left side of his head.

"I. . . think I can. . ." the penguin replied, lifting his right flipper.

Private turned around to take a look at his other flipper but Skipper stopped him.

"No!" the sheriff let out.

"What?!" Private yelled, terrified.

Skipper looked at Private's right flipper. The flipper was completely torn apart. Private must've landed on his right arm and skidded across the sidewalk, peeling a few layers of flesh. To make matters worse, it looked like his arm was broken as well.

"Just. . . keep your eyes on me, okay?" the sheriff instructed the penguin.

"W-why?" Private inquired, lifting his right flipper over his face.

Skipper quickly pushed it back down, causing Private to scream in pain. "Look at me!" Skipper ordered again.

Private started panicking. His flipper was broken, he knew that now. But he didn't know how bad it was. If it's enough to make Skipper squirm, it must be completely destroyed or perhaps it was completely gone and Skipper pushed what little flipper was left.

Skipper took off his bloodied uniform and wrapped it around the flipper and wrapped the sleeves on the opposite shoulder to help elevate the injured wing.

"What happened?" Private inquired.

"There was an explosion and we crashed. Our mission now is to get back to headquarters." Skipper replied, still working on the temporary cast.

"Crashed?" Private finally noticed the large cut over Skipper's left eye socket. "Skippah, you're bleeding!" Private shouted.

"It's okay, I'm fine. Nothing's happened to me, I'm all right." The sheriff reassured.

The scent of copper coated Private's lungs. His head felt light, like if was going to drift off his shoulders at any moment or with a strong gust of wind. "Where. . . are we?" Private inquired.

Skipper fixed his eyes on Private's facial expressions. "You probably have a concussion." Skipper replied. Don't concussions come with temporary memory loss or was that a side effect that came after one? Or was that from falling asleep during a concussion? Wait, isn't it bad if you fall asleep if you have a concussion? Why can't he remember?

More jets flew by. Nearby gunfire made the young penguin jump out of his skin.

"Private, by any chance, did you fall asleep?" Skipper inquired.

"Where's the other guy that came with us? Is he okay?" Private inquired, nearly falling down when he got his footing.

Skipper caught him before he could fall. Skipper stayed silent. Private caught on to this. "Skipper," Private tried getting the sheriff's attention.

"We should head for the HQ. We need to regroup, figure out what we need to do next." Skipper avoided the question.

Private figured it out. He sprinted towards the upside-down police car.

"Private!" Skipper barked.

Private knelt and poked his head inside the vehicle. The same copper smell smacked him across the face. He spotted an upside-down silhouette in the shape of a person. Private called out to the person and received no response. He was completely silent. It was like he was dead… Then it hit him.

Skipper dragged the young penguin away from the wrecked car. "No!" Private cried.

"We can't help him! We need to get back to headquarters!" Skipper barked.

Private place his flippers on his face and began to weep. He didn't know who this person was but that didn't matter. He was someone. He was someone's best friend, someone's son, someone's person. Now he's gone. The more he thought of it, the more it hurt his little heart.

Skipper placed a flipper on Private's shoulder. "I'm sorry. He was a nice guy it bet, but we need to get out of here. It's not safe here. We need to regroup. Rico's out there somewhere. Kowalski's out there somewhere. Marlene's out there somewhere. They could be in trouble or something far worse! This city, our home, is spiraling down the drain and it's our job to make sure that doesn't happen. I need you to pull yourself together, soldier. Can you do that?" Skipper inquired.

Private looked up to his leader. Before he could say anything, the horrifying shrieks of the dead erupted from where the explosion happened. Skipper picked himself up and limped towards the intersection. Right in the middle of the road, the U-Haul truck's engine was engulfed in flames and was quickly spreading throughout the length of the truck.

Down the road, a wall of life blocked about half of the street. Nearby skyscrapers were up in flames. People were running away from the flames, which was strange. Wouldn't they have left by now? But before Skipper could come to some sort of conclusion, animals were _running_ through the tall wall of fire. Their fur would ignite and they would tackle some of the people nearby.

One waddled its way up to a dying woman and began tearing into her abdomen, pulling apart the skin and digging into her organs. More soon joined.

Skipper rubbed his eyes. Was he really seeing what he was seeing? Was he hallucinating all of this? Then Cynthia came back to mind. How she was attacked; her attacker. Was there more of these people?

Skipper backed away from the scene after a few of them began walking towards his direction. "Let's go, we need to hurry. Can you walk?" Skipper inquired.

Private tested his footing. He felt slightly lightheaded, but he felt like he could walk just fine. He nodded, but his head began aching upon doing so.

Skipper nodded, acknowledging his response.

"Can you?" Private inquired.

Skipper nodded, stepping forward. Private noticed his limp and offered to help Skipper in walking to which Skipper rejected.

"Let's go before anything else happens to us." Skipper informed.

"What about. . ." Private glanced at their wrecked vehicle.

"He's not staying there forever. We'll come back or him once we get this mess all figured out." Skipper replied, looking back down the road that was filled with the undead. Each one creeping closer to where Skipper and Private were.

Private paused. "Okay, Skippah." the young penguin said solemnly.

Skipper looked at the street lights, trying to figure out where exactly they were. "Alright, we're currently stationed at 7th Avenue and West 41st Street. If we continue down 7th and take a left on West 42nd Street, we'll be able to turn into 2nd Street that should take us straight to HQ which will cut our time in half to about eleven minutes." Skipper planned.

"Alright, let's–"

The sound of gunshots pounded the eardrums of both penguins. The blast of what sounded like a canon echoed throughout the packed street they were on. The deafening explosion came soon after. Skipper turned to where the blasts were coming from. An outbreak of gunshots was originating from the opposite side of the street where Skipper saw the wave of people eating other people.

The military was rolling through. The large tank came rolling in, launching another round of ammunition at the crowd of the undead. Soldiers were flooding in, firing their automatic rifles at the wave of reanimated corpses. One trooper noticed the two penguins that were covering their ears.

"HEY!" the woman barked, running up to the civilians, "You're not supposed to be here!" she continued to bark.

"What are you doing?!" Skipper tried screaming over the mass amounts of gunfire.

"We're trying to clear areas of Manhattan, drive hostiles out of the city! New York is right smack in the middle of the Red Zone, you people need to get out of here _now_!" the soldier yelled over the explosions of rockets.

Skipper waited until the explosions stopped before asking, "Do you know what's going on?!"

The woman shook her head. "No idea, we just got orders from the Five-Sided Puzzle Palace that the entire East Coast is in deep in this Charlie Foxtrot (clusterfuck)." the female soldier shouted. "Follow where we came from, we've already cleared that section for the most part, and get the hell out of Manhattan!"

Skipper nodded. The sheriff placed his flipper on the woman's shoulder, "Good luck!" Skipper said before grabbing Private's flipper and jogging towards the road the soldier was pointing to. He wanted to stay and fight whatever they were fighting, but with his injuries and Private, he knew that would be a horrible idea, no matter how much he wanted to grab a gun and start firing.

Both penguins made their way past the group of soldiers, running past a multiple rocket launcher that began firing its ammo.

The penguins ran through the wreckage that was their home city, coming across an abandoned vehicle. Skipper grabbed a lone brick and smashed the window, unlocking the door. Private wasn't sure about this. This total went against everything Skipper had taught him, but in the inside, he knew the sheriff would give him a speech about how his current actions are necessary and what not, so he just went along with it.

Skipper slid his flipper in the ignition cover and pulled. The ignition cover came off, revealing many colorful wires. Private couldn't believe what he was witnessing.

The car's engine roared. "Alright hop in; the guys are probably waiting for us back at HQ." Skipper ordered. Without hesitating, he climbed inside. He sort of got a little excited after witnessing Skipper breaking the law; some sort of cheap thrill or something. Skipper stepped on the gas and hightailed it out of Times Square.

* * *

**Atlanta City Limits, Atlanta, Georgia**

Raymond was only a few miles away from reaching the university where his friends were trapped. The entire call with Erik played in his mind like a broken record. Every time his brain ran past the sound of gunfire, it felt as if his bowels had turned into water. His face became flustered, radiating with heat out of piercing apprehension.

But he kept his emotions from taking over, for if it wasn't for his willpower, his truck would have crashed into a nearby supply store. But the suspense was killing him. Sweat began to bead under his armpits and forehead. He would glance at his phone on the car mount in case his missed a message or any sort of notification from his friends.

He tried calling 911 earlier, but all the phone calls were dropped; so in reality, Raymond glancing at his phone every five seconds was pointless. No calls could go out or be received, but he couldn't help but check.

Rain pelted his windshield as well as the mist kicked up from the vehicles in front of him made it virtually impossible to see beyond twenty feet. Absolutely no light was strong enough to pierce through the wall of murky water, not even the lights of skyscrapers that made up the Atlanta skyline. The only sound audible was the heavy downpour and jets flying at sonic speeds.

Raymond took a right, leaving the main highway that lead straight into the heart of Atlanta. The university was on the opposite side of the city, which complicated things tenfold.

He was coming up at an intersection when the traffic lights turned back on. His radio turned on as well, landing on a news station.

"We're getting reports from a CDC virologist, let's tune in now." the news reported announced before switching to a live feed coming from the CDC.

**CDC VIROLOGIST:**

"I just want to oust a rumor that these people are deceased. . . they are _not_. The dead do _not_ walk among us. . ."

Raymond glanced at his radio. _'What the hell are these guys on?'_ he thought.

Up ahead, two vehicles collided with each other. The driver of the small car was thrown out the windshield and splattered on the pavement. Raymond stepped on the breaks, his tired skidding along the pavement. Coming to a complete halt, Raymond climbed out of his truck.

The lemur jogged down the road, towards the bloody mess. Raymond knelt beside the man that was thrown out of his car. He pressed two of his fingers against the man's neck. No pulse.

"Dammit," he whispered to himself.

He then ran towards the other car. "Are you alright?" Raymond called.

When he reached the minivan, two arms poked out of the driver's side window. Raymond stopped in his tracks. The reanimated corpse growled and hissed at the lemur, trying very hard to go through the glass in order to reach his prey.

Raymond slowly stepped away from the car and trotted back to his truck.

He opened the door and grabbed his phone to call 911. The phone services were still down. He couldn't get a single bar. Meanwhile, down the road, the dead man's eyes slowly opened. The reanimated corpse turned its head towards where the sounds of growls were coming from. Whilst turning, he spotted the giant lemur that stood next to his truck.

He growled and slowly crawled his way towards the lemur. His right arm was broken; the bone broke through the skin. His rib cage was shattered, which caused him to drown in his own blood. The small pieces of rib could be heard moving around in the chest cavity with each move it took.

With the help of his peripheral vision, he noticed something moving on his left. When he turned his head, he nearly fell down on his ass. It was the dead man. He was… alive? But… how could that be possible? He checked his pulse and received no indication that this man was alive.

The words of the virologist were played back in his head: _'The dead do not walk among us. . .'_

It all made sense now. The gunshots, the half day off, the blackout, the frantic call from Erik, the news report, the jets, everything was connected… to this. This thing. There's probably more that one of these. These things are the reason for all of this mess, for everything that's happened today.

Raymond climbed back inside his truck and started the engine. He stepped on the gas and ran over the corpse's head, blood and brains splashing against the rim.

* * *

**O.R., New York-Presbyterian/Queens Hospital, Queens County, New York**

The frantic shouts of nurses, interns, and civilians were leaking into the operation room where Dr. Garner had a patient's skull exposed. A nurse held a flashlight over the neurosurgeon's shoulder, shining light on the patient's dying brain.

"Suction here," the surgeon ordered.

Madison carefully shifted the surgical instrument across the surface, trying to avoid having the surgical drain from coming into contact with brain matter.

A nurse came running inside the operating room carrying bags of blood. "Would this be enough blood?" the nurse inquired.

"That should be fine. Go ahead and feed it through. We don't know how much blood this person's lost; we need to keep doing transfusions, keep the blood circulating." Dr. Garner replied, not moving a muscle.

"How much longer are we going to be without power?" Madeline inquired, frustrated.

"I don't know, but I hope not for much longer. For all we know this patient's a fucking vegetable without us even knowing." Dr. Garner snapped.

Madeline gasped, "Why could you say such a thing?"

The neurosurgeon looked up, "I'm sorry. It's just. . . "

"Dr. Garner, there's blood coming out of his IV." a nurse informed.

"What?"

"His IV, there's blood leaking out of it. . ." the nurse panicked.

The neurosurgeon looked over his shoulder. His eyes met the patient's intravenous line located on this patient's inner crook of his elbow. There, the medicine was being pushed by his blood back into the bag. Blood began to seep through the tape and dripped down the length of his forearm.

The scrub nurse holding the flashlight pointed the beam of light onto the bundle of IV bags. Most of them began to turn red as the precious crimson liquid was being fed into each bag.

Dr. Garner nearly fainted. "He's going into DIC; we need to open him up, NOW! PAGE THE CHIEF!"

Madeline panicked. "What's DIC?"

"DIC stands for Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation. His blood vessels are clotting. His entire body is bleeding out and his organs are malfunctioning. If we don't open him up, he's going to go into total organ failure." Dr. Garner informed in a panicked tone. "Get the chief in here!" he barked.

"Wait a minute, we're going to perform surgery on a man who's got a needle embedded five inches in his brain and is bleeding uncontrollably in the _dark_?!" the surgical intern realized the gravity of the situation.

"I know it sounds crazy, but I am _NOT_ going to lose this patient!" the neurosurgeon barked.

Madeline's saucer eyes met the patient's exposed skull. Blood kept creeping up onto the surface. She could feel her heart pounding against her chest. Her paws were cramping and beading with sweat. On one paw, she held the surgical drain. On the other, she held the forceps that kept a large chunk of brain matter from shifting. One slight move and she could risk having the patient forget all about the third grade.

The sound of the oxygen bag Mark squeezed in regular intervals invaded her head. Each squeeze signified that two seconds had passed. Each invading squeeze felt like an hour had passed, but in reality, it was just another two seconds into the nightmare she was in. The walls felt like they were closing in on her yet everything in front of her seemed to recede away from her.

The operating table moved away from her. Another two seconds passed. Her breathing slowed, with each breath getting louder and more deafening than the last.

.

Another two seconds passed.

.

She wanted out. Her hands felt like they would burst at any moment. She could feel her palms turn elastic and being yanked backwards, a blunt pain increasingly becoming unbearable.

.

.

Two seconds passed. Another breath.

.

.

Her legs were screaming for her to run. Tears began forming in her eyes. All that training for this. All those years in medical school for this moment. She wasn't ready. She's not meant to become a surgeon. This feeling of being pushed to the brink of physical and emotional collapse, the pressure of having the life of a person in your hands, was eating her alive. A muffled voice began to leak through her bubble.

.

.

.

Two seconds passed.

.

Another breath.

.

.

.

"Mad. . . ine. . ." the voice echoed.

.

.

.

.

Two seconds.

.

.

Another bre—

" _MADELINE!_ " Dr. Garner barked, his voice finally penetrating the intern's ears.

The mammal jumped, shifting the forceps.

"Madeline! Look at me!" the neurosurgeon trying reaching the crying intern.

The mammal let out a few soft weeps.

"Madeline, dammit, listen to me!"

"I can't. . ." the mammal sobbed.

"You can't do what?!"

"I-I can't do this. . ."

"Yes you can!"

"I'm so scared. . ." Madeline cried.

"Well, _we're all scared_! If you're not scared, you're not _paying attention_! Having your only child talk to you about signing up to go to war, _that's_ scary! Having a wife who's diagnosed with melanoma and waking up one morning and not knowing what day it is, _that's_ scary! Having dead patients come back from the dead and not knowing why the fuck that's happening, _that's_ scary! WHAT YOU'RE GOING THROUGH _ISN'T SCARY_! You're just _weak_! You were trained for this! You know what to do! You don't even know what scary is! You need to pull yourself together and save this patient's life!" Dr. Garner barked, tears running down his face.

Madeline stared at him with her big, teary eyes. "Okay. . ." she managed to say through her convulsive gasps.

* * *

**Atlanta University, Atlanta, Georgia**

"Lay him on the floor carefully." Naomi instructed.

"What the fuck was that?!" Kelsi yelled, walking around the girl's bathroom.

"I don't know; Erik get us some toilet paper, he's losing too much blood– just bring the whole roll!" Naomi ordered.

"Ezekiel, can you hear me? How are we doing, buddy?" Kyle inquired, trying to keep the ferret from falling asleep.

"I. . . I'm h-hanging in th-there. . ." Ezekiel responded, weakly.

"I mean, what the fuck just happen?! Did you people see what those things were?!" Kelsi continued.

"Everyone, take your phones out, we need the light." Naomi instructed, placing her phone on the floor screen first so that her phone's flashlight would illuminate some of the restroom.

"Erik, you still with us?" Kyle called out. The wolf looked up to see his bat friend trembling in the corner of the restroom. "Erik, come on man, I can't take care of you at the same time."

Blood began to spurt out of the ferret's wound as Naomi lifted the blood-soaked ball of cotton. The wolf turned to the trembling fruit bat, "ERIK!" she barked. The fruit bat jumped before burying his face in his hands.

Ezekiel's body turned stiff and his body began thrashing around.

"Woah, woah, woah! What's happening?!" Kyle panicked.

"Turn him on his side!" Naomi directed while pressing the bloodied ball of cotton against Ezekiel's wound.

Kyle did as commanded. Foam began to escape from the ferret's mouth.

"He's having a seizure from all the blood he's lost. He's not getting enough oxygen in his brain." she looked up at Kyle. "He's going to die here if we don't get him to the hospital." Naomi informed, dread present in her voice.

"What about the gunmen? These two freaks just outside the door? We don't even know what's out there." Kyle vexed.

"You don't think I know that? If we don't get past these things, the shock's going to kill him." Naomi grimly advised.

Kyle looked at Erik who was still whimpering.

Ezekiel's body slowly stopped thrashing around. "Kelsi, come elevate his head. It'll prevent him from drowning in his own saliva." Naomi ordered. The vampire bat knelt down and rested the ferret's head on her lap.

"Erik, I want you to call Raymond. We need him to know what the hell is happening before he gets wrapped up in all this mess." Kyle tried reaching the fruit bat.

Erik just sat there.

"Erik!" Kyle yelled. Still nothing.

Erik was in his own world. His heart was pounding its way out of his chest. Sweat formed in his armpit and tiny palms. They were all going to die. The shooter was going to find them hiding here. The things outside are going to attract the shooter right to them. The wooden door began buckling. The wood began to crack and snap from the hits it took by the fire extinguisher the custodian was using to tear into the door. They'll surely die now.

"Erik, listen to me! I know you're scared, but you've got to know, we're all scared too! You can't let this feeling consume you! Do you really want the shooter from the hospital win? Are you really going to throw your life, all of our lives away because of what you're feeling? This feeling is what's going to get you killed! It's what's going to get all of us killed! It's the actions you don't do that are going to get us all killed! It's the fear of not thinking of making it that's going to get us all killed! If you don't do anything, you're going to die! If you don't act, you're going to die! You need to act now, Erik! You need to fucking fight this!" Kyle spoke his heart out.

The fruit bat looked at him, teary eyed. He was right. He always knew that Kyle was right. What Kyle just said had always been in Erik's mind since the incident. But his brain had been rewired since, making him afraid of almost everything. Although it seemed to be like everything, his friends thought otherwise. He's stronger than he thinks.

He looked at the friends in front of him. They were all helping this stranger survive. They were all heroes. And Erik? He's just another person who's got to be saved. His friends were always the ones to be the ones to do something. They could have easily left Erik behind. But they never left his side. They've always supported him even if he's never supported himself. He owes them that. Erik and Kelsi exchanged looks. Kelsi nodded.

Erik pulled out Kelsi's phone. The phone had a single bar. Wasting no time, he dialed Raymond's number and prayed that there was still a person on the other line who'd answer. Amazingly, he answered.

"Erik! Are you guys alright? What happened?!" Raymond yelled frantically.

"R-Raymond, I'm in a restroom and there-there's a g…guy and he's bleeding profusely and I think hhe-he-he might d-die." the fruit bat stammered.

"Erik, listen to me, were there any people with guns at the college?" Raymond tried to calm himself down, his arm shaking with fear.

"There's so much b-b-blood, Raymond…"

"Give me the phone!" Kyle demanded.

Erik tossed the phone and jumped by the sound of the blast of the fire extinguisher smashing into the door.

"Raymond, you need to come get us NOW! Whatever you two were doing this entire time needs to stop, get your asses over here no—" the line cut off.

"Raymond? Raymond?!" Kyle barked. He glanced at the screen.

**Call Ended**

The grey wolf yelled in frustration and threw the phone across the restroom, nearly hitting Naomi.

"Hey, what the fuck?!" Kelsi yelled.

"Sorry. Goddammit! What now?!" Kyle barked.

"I don't know, Kyle!" Naomi exploded. "I don't fucking know! Just stop yelling, dammit!" Naomi snapped.

"Wait, do you all hear that?" Kelsi inquired.

"What, the sound of people trying to break in the bathroom or the sounds of gunshots in the distance?" Naomi inquired, sarcastically.

"No, not that. . ." Kelsi said. "Just be quite for a sec." the vampire faced the stall that was next to her.

The only sounds that were audible were the pounding of the fire extinguisher and the gunshots. There was nothing else. Then. . . the sound of faint breathing was head.

"What the fuck is that?" Kyle whispered, pointing Naomi's phone flashlight at the stall Kelsi was facing.

The loud thud of something smashing against the stall door made the group scream in terror. There was something alive in there. The reanimated corpse knelt down and peered under the space between the stall door and the floor. He reached its arm towards Kelsi. The vampire bat quickly stood up, trying to avoid the monstrosity's grip. That's when the door split open. Arms burst through the opening. One reached for the lock.

"Erik, Kelsi, stop them!" Kyle barked as he tried kicking the monstrosity's arms away.

Naomi dragged Ezekiel away from both sources of danger; still applying pressure on the ferret's wound. Kelsi ran around Naomi and tackled the door in the hopes of knocking at least one of the intruders with the help of physics.

"Erik!" Kelsi called for help.

Erik picked himself up and helped in guarding the door. He slapped away any paws that tried reaching for the lock. The reanimated corpse was able to get a hold on Kyle's left leg. Naomi watched as her boyfriend plummeted towards the hard floor.

"Kyle!" Naomi cried.

The grey wolf's head smashed against the tiled floor, causing him to feel disorientated. With the help of Kyle's legs, the corpse was able to crawl out of the stall. The reanimated corpse tried clawing into Kyle's leg, but the person who was alive had clipped their nails, making it much harder for him to tear into the savory drumstick. So, it resorted to biting.

Kyle was able to kick its head away before it was able to do so. Kyle tried standing up but lost his balance from his head injury and fell back down. Meanwhile the zombie crawled out of the stall. Being freshly turned, it was able to pick itself up before Kyle.

The reanimated corpse tackled the disoriented wolf, causing Kyle's head to slam into the restroom mirror that was over the sink. The glass shattered, creating long, sharp shards.

The custodian grabbed the top of Erik's left wing and pulled towards him. The fruit bat's arm was lifted over his head.

"NO!" Kelsi cried as she tried bringing Erik's arm back down before it snaps.

Kyle was able to get a hold on the zombie's arms which were being flung all over the place, each trying to claw its way into Kyle's neck. The dead animal's head was also trying to bite into Kyle's neck. The wolf was face to face with death. Its teeth were covered in discolored saliva and its gums were bloodied. Kyle tried searching for its pupils, but it looked like it didn't have any. Its eyes were bloodshot and oozing blood. But the most horrifying thing about this whole situation was the fact that it wasn't breathing.

He couldn't feel it's breath on his fur or smell its breath. All he could smell was the scent of death. Wait... this person couldn't possibly be dead, right?

The grey wolf turned his head, increasing the intensity of his splitting headache, and reached for the largest shard of glass that was embedded in the mirror. He dug around, cutting his fingers before finally taking one out. He had a firm grip on it, deepening the cuts on his paw, and swung his arm. The shard of glass sunk into the man's neck, severing the major arteries.

The retreated the blade. Blood gushed out of the laceration like a geyser. Blood rained upon Naomi and Ezekiel. Blood stained half of Kyle's face. The zombie's blood on the shard of glass ran up the edge and mixed with Kyle's blood.

Even with all the blood loss, the man didn't stop trying to tear into Kyle's chest. This sent chills up Kyle's spine. He then dug the shard deep into the man's chest, puncturing its left lung. None of Kyle's hits even faded the attacker. The attacker became even more aggressive, pushing its prey, causing Kyle to fall into the sink.

The custodian gave on more tug at the fruit bat's wing, straining one of the muscle's inside his arm. The fruit bat screamed in agony. Kelsi grabbed a large chunk of the splintered door and ripped it off. She then swung it around, trying to fend off the intruders.

With the zombie much closer, Kyle was able to dig the shard deep into the man's nape, severing the spinal cord. That's when the man finally stopped. Kyle quickly pushed the monstrosity off of his body, and jumped out of the sink.

"You okay?" Naomi inquired.

"I'm fine!" Kyle responded before running towards the door.

With Erik not being able to keep them from unlocking the door, one of the infected animals was able to turn the lock. The custodian dropped Erik and pushed the door open. Kyle swung his arm and jabbed the shard of glass deep into the custodian's neck. The force the wolf implied was like a punch, which caused the custodian to fly towards the sink.

The lady grabbed Erik's leg and dragged him out of the restroom.

"Erik!" the vampire bat cried before running after him.

The third intruder ran past Kelsi and head-butted Kyle in the stomach. Kyle's back smashed hard against the floor, knocking the breath right out of him. The attacker wrapped her hands around Kyle's neck and squeezed.

"NO!" Naomi cried, tackling the woman.

Kyle turned to his side, violently coughing and gasping for air.

Naomi grabbed the woman's head and smashed it on the side of the sink. Blood sprayed the mirror as the woman's head cracked and split open. She continued to smash the woman's head repeatedly until the woman's brain turned to mush from all the trauma.

Kelsi grabbed the fire extinguisher the custodian used to break down the door and swung it, hitting the animal dragging Erik away. Blood sprayed the brick wall as the animal fell backward. Kelsi stood over the woman and brought down the blunt instrument down on the woman's face.

Kyle picked himself up and grabbed Naomi's paw. "Let's get the fuck out of here!" the grey wolf said in a gruff voice.

"Help me get Ezekiel!" Naomi said, grabbing one of the ferret's arms.

Kelsi ran up to Erik, "Oh my God, are you okay?!" Kelsi inquired, petrified over her boyfriend's state.

"I'm fine, I'm fine. My wing, I-I think it's broken. . ." Erik trailed off.

"Guys, come on!" Naomi yelled, gunfire was even more audible and the screams of many echoed throughout the hallways.

"Come on!" Kelsi grabbed Erik's good arm and help him up.

The group ran down the hall and took a right towards the exit that they saw earlier. They were so close to the exit, yet so far.

Once out, they were greeted with heavy rain and the sound of thunder. To their right, plumes of smoke rose from the dorms. Red and blue light slashed against the brick walls of the school in every direction.

"Come on!" Kyle barked, running towards the large field.

The rain made it almost impossible to see. The wind wasn't in their favor either. Erik turned to his right, where the gunshots were coming from. There, he could see faint, milky silhouettes running in every direction. Some were running out of the dorms and some were running into them, carrying something he couldn't make out. The sounds of helicopter blades overhead made this feel like they were in a war zone.

The group ran towards the vehicles that were lined in the opposite side of the field. Erik and Kelsi were in the front, leading. Kyle and Naomi were behind, practically dragging Ezekiel with them.

The shouts and screams of people in the distance made it hard to hear what exactly the officers were saying to them.

"Help!" We need help!" Kelsi scream at the top of her lungs.

"Stop right there!" an officer barked.

"Our friend is hurt!" Kyle yelled. A team of soldiers with their weapons at their sides came rushing to help. Soldiers? What were they doing here?

* * *

**New York-Presbyterian/Queens Hospital, Queens County, New York**

Nurses and fellow New Yorkers ran around the hospital. The hospital was beginning to collapse due to the sheer amount of people occupying the health center. Medicine was becoming more and more difficult to come by. Nurses and interns would have to run up and down several flights of stairs just to get medication to circulate around the other floors whose supplies were about to run dry.

Down at the Emergency Room, more patients flooded in; they didn't even have enough time to change the sheets that were soaked in blood from past patients. The best they could do was to cover the beds with disposable paper sheets, what they usually use for examination tables at the free clinic that was just outside the hospital. Of course, that building was filled to the brim with patients.

Emily trotted through the vast ocean of people, removing her bloody gloves.

One of the hospital's electrician emerged from the crowd. "We don't know what's wrong, every time we try and flip the switch, the generator won't budge!" the man reported.

"You know I don't know a thing about this, why are you telling me?" Emily shook her head.

"You're close to the chief, whenever you see him, you tell him that it might be a little while longer before we get the generator working." the electrician ordered.

"What makes you think I've seen him?" Emily wailed her arms.

"I don't know you're the one up here, not hidden away in the basement maybe?" the electrician scoffed before leaving.

"Just get the generator going, we've got people dying by the minute!" Emily barked.

The mammal threw her gloves in the biohazardous waste bin before she was met with medical files shoved in her face once again.

"What do we have?" the mammal inquired, already knowing the answer.

"Alex Browning, twenty-seven, collapsed in the sidewalk outside his house." the paramedic explained, rushing the patient laying on a gurney into the overpopulated ER.

"He's showing symptoms?" Emily inquired.

"Yep, where do you want him?" the paramedic inquired.

Emily looked around. "We can put him. . . uhh. . ." out of the corner of her eye, she caught someone familiar.

"Oh thank God, Chief I'm so glad to see you." Emily sighed in relief as what felt like fifty pounds were just lifted off of her shoulders.

"I was in surgery this entire time, I had no idea it was actually this bad!" the Chief of Surgery exclaimed.

"We're running out of everything. There's not one inch in this hospital that isn't taken over by patients." Emily informed her boss; the shakiness of her voice alarmed the Chief.

"All right, I want to issue out a Code Black for the entire hospital. Maybe we can call Red Cross of the CDC to send in some medical troops, set up camps in the parking lot." the Chief thought out loud.

"I've already called the NYHRC," Emily informed.

"How long ago?"

Emily paused. She had no earthly idea how long it had been since she had talked to someone besides a patient or a nurse. "Uhh, I'd say twenty-five minutes ago?"

"Are you sure?" the Chief questioned her legitimacy.

"Seventy-five percent sure, Sir." the mammal stammered.

"It was actually fifty minutes ago," Kowalski poked his head into the conversation. "You can put this patient in the cafeteria, we've got space there, but not for long. I'd suggest you get there as fast as you can." the tall officer instructed the paramedic.

"Fifty minutes?!" the Chief's voice nearly cracked.

"Sharron called them a second time since I couldn't find Emily; they said that they sent a team out but they never got here. They lost communication with them when they entered New York City after the lights went out. We made this call twenty minutes ago." Kowalski enlightened.

"All right, so what's the plan?" Emily inquired. Kowalski shifted his eyes on the Chief's face. What the Chief wore was the face of tiredness and defeat. This made Kowalski uneasy. A man with the same endurance, strength, and determination as Skipper, a man he accidentally called 'Skipper' once was now looking like he was absolutely lost.

"We keep doing what we're doing. We hold down the fort for as long as we can." the Chief assured.

Emily was taken aback, "That's it? No motivational speech or anything? Just "hold down the fort" before people start raiding the hospital?" the mammal questioned.

"It's the only thing we can do until we get reinforcements."

Emily turned to Kowalski who gave her a solemn look. "You're agreeing with this?"

"I can probably radio in a few officers over here to help set up stations outside the hospital to help cope with the capacity problem. We can also try and call the NYHRC again and I can help escort them here, make sure they actually survive their trip through New York." the tall penguin planned.

"That sounds better than doing nothing." Emily sighed.

"It's not doing _nothing_!" the Chief yelled. "And _you're_ not going anywhere! Help is coming! We're staying here; we need every available person _here_! We cannot afford to lose any staff or else the hospital will collapse. Look around you; we're drowning on dry land!"

The lights began to flicker.

"Oh God, is the generator finally kicking on?"

On cue, the lights kicked on. Monitors began functioning. Ventilators began beeping. The entire hospital woke up from its short yet hectic hibernation. The large television monitor switched on, showcasing **CNN** news. The iconic **Breaking News** banner flashed in the lower right corner of the screen.

People gathered around the screen as the news anchor's voice boomed.

"As the East Coast makes its way into its second hour in this power outage, New York City has plummeted into chaos as riots tear the major city apart. We're getting news of the military trying to help evacuate the island of Manhattan. Governors Andrew Cuomo and Tom Wolf have both declared a state of emergency for their states, which now makes nine states in total that are now in pandemonium." Chuck Charles announced.

"What the hell is going on out there . . .?" Emily inquired.

A nurse came running inside the Emergency Room, "They're here!" she yelled.

"Who?" the Chief inquired.

"Reinforcements!" the nurse replied before running back outside.

The Chief and Emily looked at each other.

"Page all available surgeons, bring them to me; get them down here!" the Chief commanded.

"Clear the ER. Discharge all patients who can be." Emily ordered.

"Cancel all elective surgeries. I want a security lockdown on this floor."

"All admits, let's get them upstairs."

"Call all blood services; I want all the O-neg they have."

"I want all available beds and gurneys down here."

"This epidemic is our main concern as of right _now_!"

"I also want portable sonograms and crash carts down here _now_!"

A scrub nurse grabbed the Chief's hand. "Dr. Garner needs your help."

Kowalski eyes widened, "Garner's surgery, how could I have completely forgotten all about that?!"

"Emily, I'm putting you in charge of the ER." the Chief assigned.

"Are you sure? You don't need me somewhere else?" the mammal inquired. She hated the idea of being stuck in one place.

"Are you saying you can't handle this?"

Emily paused, "You can count on me. . ." she sighed.

"Good, let's all meet again in a few hours. We need to discuss out next course of action once the dust settles." the Chief planned before exiting the Emergency Room.

Emily and Kowalski looked at each other. "Is this really happening?"

"I too am having a hard time accepting the gravity of the situation." Kowalski shook his head.

Emily took a deep breath, "Alright, I'll help with the paramedics in loading patients through the decontamination chambers. You are going to stay here in the E.R., help out anyone who needs help. Reporters are probably flocking over here by now. I'm putting you in charge of stopping them from entering the hospital; we don't want to cause a panic about this!" Emily ordered, running out of the emergency room as the distant wailings of ambulances grew louder and louder by the second.

Kowalski paused, "Wait, wouldn't having the chief address the public of the situation here be better than to kick them out? Wouldn't _that_ cause the city to go into distress?" the tall officer yelled. What they saw earlier on the television came into mind.

"Just. . . stall them!" the mammal shouted, disappearing within the crowd of nurses and interns flooding out of the E.R. "And remember. . .!" her voice began to dissipate, "quarantine the bitten!"

He turned to the large television that was blasting flashing images on the side of his face. Shots of Times Square under flames sent shivers up Kowalski's spine. He could see Chuck Charles' mouth moving but the words entering his ears were all mushing together, all the information, everything was getting being blended together; the shouts of civilians, nurses, and paramedics were all added into the uproar that was erupting in the emergency room.

Though, familiar voice crept into the tall officer's ears. The penguin looked scanned the E.R., people in different colored scrubs ran in every direction. He looked around, in search for the person her recognized. The voice began to decrease in volume, a sign that the person was leaving, about to be lost in the sea of animals.

His legs jolted forward. He gently pushed people out of his path. He made his way to the double doors that led out of the emergency room. He pushed both doors open, and on the other side, an otter stood next to a bed.

"Marlene?" Kowalski inquired.

The female otter faced the male who called her name. "Kowalski?" she replied.

"What are you doing here; did something happen to you? Are you feeling nauseous or have a fever?" Kowalski inquired, already fearing the worst.

"No, I—" the otter was cut off by the sound of the patient's shouts.

"Get this off of me! Just give me some rubbing alcohol or something less _evasive_!" the bird yelled, pushing the nurse away with a canister of sedatives and another nurse that was trying to put a surgical mask on him.

"Wait. . . hey! Get back here; where are you taking him!?" Marlene yelled, chasing after the nurses who were abducting the patient.

Stet's voice made Kowalski's body turn cold. "No. . ." the officer muttered under his breath.

* * *

**New York City Police Department, New York City, New York**

Skipper and Private were met with hundreds of thousands of people rioting and running away from something in every direction once again just five minutes after getting out of Times Square. It seems like whatever's happening; the northern half of the city is completely hostile.

Skipper parked the car wherever he could and climbed out. He waddled to the other side to help Private out. The little penguin hopped out of the stolen vehicle and got a firm grip on Skipper's flipper, in the hopes of not being lost in the large crowd of people.

More soldiers ran down the street, heading up north. Some ran with barricades and yet another tank was rolling through. The injured penguins made their way up the steps of headquarters and were met by a wall of officers.

One of them walked up to them, "Thank God you made it. We were getting worried here." the officer greeted the sheriff, patting him on the shoulder.

"We need to evacuate these people. It's a goddamn war zone up north." Skipper replied, entering the police station.

"We tried reaching the guys up at the Bronx and received no feedback, all we got was static. It's static no matter who we turn to. All we hear is static." the officer followed his commander inside.

"The troops are fighting people off up north. Anything beyond Times Square is either evacuated or completely gone. My guess is that they're setting up barricades to fend off anyone who comes down south. This island is going to turn into a war zone soon." Skipper replied.

"We couldn't reach anyone down at the Financial District either, Skipper." the officer informed.

Skipper looked at him. "Nothing?"

"Nothing at all. I'm telling you, we're completely in the dark. That's what's making evacuating much more difficult. There's no one to look over things, we can't contact one another, we don't know what's going on in one part of the city, and so on and so forth." the officer replied.

"So we're got hostiles coming at us from the north and the south at the same time?" Skipper inquired.

**:**

"I'm afraid so. And if what you're saying is true, then we're right in the middle of the war zone." the officer gravely answered.

* * *

"Oh thank God!" Erik sighed.

One of the soldiers stopped. "What's wrong with him?" he asked, pointing to Ezekiel.

"There were these guys; he got bit by one–"

"BITE! WE'VE GOT A BITE!" the man announced to the rest of his crew, pointing his gun at Ezekiel.

"Wait, WAIT!" Kyle yelled.

"Step away from the infected!" a soldier barked.

"He's lost a lot of blood! He's going to die!" Naomi cried.

"Get away from him!" another soldier yelled.

"Separate them!"

"Wait! No!" Kelsi cried as she was pulled away from Erik.

"Let go of me!" Naomi yelled as an officer pulled her away from Ezekiel.

* * *

"Clear the way!" an officer yelled.

Skipper and the other officer turned towards the entrance. A penguin and a lemur both ran inside. Both animals were bathed in blood. One of them, Skipper instantly recognized.

"Rico?" the sheriff called.

The weapons expert looked at his partner. He gave a weak smile, and collapsed.

* * *

Kelsi, Erik, and Naomi were laid flat on the muddy field. Kyle and Ezekiel were separated and Kyle was tackled down to the floor so that he could stay down.

One soldier ran up to the dying ferret with a pen flashlight. She flashed the light on the ferret's pupils which showed no sign of dilation. "Yeah, he's infected, we need to terminate!" the officer yelled.

"Terminate?! What the fuck is wrong with you people?!" Kyle barked, squirming around, trying to escape the soldier who's pinned him to the ground.

"That your blood son?" the soldier who pinned Kyle down inquired, bringing Kyle's paw closer to his face so that he can examine it.

The soldier got up and aimed her gun at Ezekiel's head.

"WAIT!" Kyle cried.

"We've got another possible bite! We need to amputate!" the soldier yelled.

* * *

Kowalski waddled up to the genie Marlene held on to. The clamoring voices faintly echoed through Kowalski's head. The closer he got, the more he could see the patient's blue uniform. His voice was piecing through his ears, blocking out the rest around him.

"Kowalski!" the bird exclaimed, "Can you tell Emily that I'm finally here and that she doesn't have to worry about me? Hey! I said I don't want the mask, dammit!" the bird snapped, pushing the nurse's hands away.

"Stetson?" the tall officer inquired.

"Yeah? Oh, you're never going to believe what just happened; I was out responding to Marlene's call on some domestic violence. So I get to her house and all of a sudden, some son of a bitch comes out of nowhere and bites me!"

Tears began forming in Kowalski's eyes.

* * *

The woman pulled the trigger, ending Ezekiel's life.

"NO!" Naomi cried.

Erik began muttering to himself as Kelsi screamed in terror.

The officer stretched Kyle's arm. Another animal came with a tomahawk.

"What are you doing?!" Kyle cried, trying to pull his paw away.

"Kyle!" Naomi cried.

"We're trying to save your life! Hold still!" the soldier barked.

The soldier lifted the weapon and brought it down fast, severing Kyle's paw from the rest of his body.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That concludes the very first 'episode' of The Dead! I'll be back in March with episode two titled: "Inferno"! Every chapter from here on out will be FAR LESS than 8,000 words! Each chapter will officially be 4,000 words from now on (besides the very big ultra epic mega sexy episodes that only I know of HEH)! Also, the story summary will change with their corresponding episode, so there's that.
> 
> That concludes the very first 'episode' of The Dead! I'll be back in March with episode two titled: "Inferno"! Every chapter from here on out will be FAR LESS than 8,000 words! Each chapter will officially be 4,000 words from now on (besides the very big ultra epic mega sexy episodes that only I know of HEH)! Also, the story summary will change with their corresponding episode, so there's that.


	6. Inferno: Part One

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we are: episode two. This is the start of everything. You though that the last episode was the start of everything? Well technically yes, but this episode is what's going to get the ball rolling. This episode is going to determine who lives and who dies. Spoiler: not everyone's going to make it into season two in one piece.
> 
> This chapter is sort of a breather chapter, a semi-slow one. It's still going to be packed like the last episode, but not as packed. I'm not going over 8,000 words anymore. Well, I'll only save those chapters for really big episodes like season premiers, mid-season finales, and season finales. There's a really huge episode that's coming and it's going to be bloody fantastic!
> 
> This season has now been upgraded to eight episodes. Each episode has four chapters (besides "Not Fade Away"). This first season will have 33 chapters. Each episode is going to be packed with a lot of content. This first season turned out to be bigger than I originally thought it would be, but that's okay. The bigger, the fucking better.
> 
> Also, I'm using a song in one of these scenes! If you want to, that is.
> 
> The song I'm using doesn't have an official track name, but it's on YouTube. Just search "A Moment of Hope" in the search-bar and click on the very first one with the thumbnail of a tower. When you see this symbol: ':' play the song. The song is pretty short, so if you run out of time listening to the song and you're still reading, just play it again until you finish.
> 
> That's all I got to say about this. Pretty much rambling on at this point. Here's episode two! Enjoy!

**Prologue**

Specks of blazing dust rained down from the sky. The sky shifted from a milky blue to a true, much deeper sort of blue. There were no white puffy clouds in sight, just the black smoke that seemed to escape the earth's atmosphere. He felt one with the earth; moving seamlessly along the earth's rotation. It was a scary feeling. His body would jump out of its skin every time it would realize that he was moving with the earth. It was just one of those feelings where you're sitting at the edge of the cliff and having the urge to jump. Looking up at the mystifying sky made his body feel like it was about to fall at any moment, which made no sense whatsoever. He was lying down, how could he fall? All of this was going through Rico's brain in what felt like hours, but only a few seconds had passed in the real world. The face of a lemur eclipsed his vision of the blue sky.

"Get up!" the lemur would yell at him. Only Rico's mind couldn't process what the mammal was trying to tell him. He could see his mouth move but no words were coming out.

The lemur pulled on one of Rico's flippers, to which had no effect to Rico's response to get up and move.

The mammal grabbed Rico's head and turned it towards the blistering fires erupting from the arena that had been 'bombed'. Fire blanketed the entire front section of the arena while the roof was also disintegrating. Metal beams began melting which made the entire structure unstable. The entire roof of the Madison Square Garden could collapse at any given second and the both of them would be swallowed by the scorching dust cloud that would follow.

Rico stared at the flames. Each column of fire would seem to dance with the direction of the wind, warping and twisting, setting fire to everything it came in contact with. That's when Rico's heart began to race. The flames were triggering something in his head that was telling him to run, but his body was frozen in place.

He couldn't hear, he couldn't move, and he was terrified. He felt cut off from the rest of the world. His chest grew tighter, making it hard to breathe. More blood began trickling down from his left ear and dripped down the side of his face. The mammal grabbed both of Rico's shoulders when he realized that the penguin was temporarily deaf from the explosion.

He hulled him up onto a sitting position and wrapped Rico's right wing over his head. He pulled the penguin up from the ground and onto his webbed feet. Rico's head felt like it fell off for a slip second due to the sudden change of scenery.

"I'm getting us both out of here, buddy. Don't you worry, we'll get there. I'm Ray by the way. Didn't intend for that to rhyme. . ." the lemur reassured the dazed and confused penguin.

Rico was practically being dragged through the city. He would bump into random people who were running away from something in every direction.

The weapons expert felt every breeze hitting his naked back. The entire upper right side of his back had the second layer of skin by the fire, exposing the raw layer of flesh and just underneath, the sensitive nerves. Rico's right flipper was completely scorched. His flesh was practically falling off the bone. Patches of white, leathery flesh were spread throughout his flipper. The upper section of his flipper had feathers missing, revealing the shriveled up pockets of yellow pus. The penguin looked up at the person who was dragging him across the city, finally seeing that it wasn't Skipper.

The man helping him was in uniform, his fur was matted on the left side of his face and blood had run down the side of his forehead. His left arm had been burned as well, but not to the extent of Rico's disfigured flipper.

"We'll get there, don't fall asleep, Rico! Stay with me, man!" the lemur yelled at him, only Rico couldn't hear a thing. White noise was the only thing he could here. The claustrophobic spaces of his own mind made it nearly impossible not to try and rip his own brain out of his skull.

* * *

_The Dead_

_Season One_

**Inferno**

**Atlanta University, Atlanta, Georgia**

All he could feel was were the blades of grass brushing up against his back whilst being dragged away from the others. Kyle kept staring at his severed paw that was moving further and further away from his body. He couldn't feel anything besides the grass. His body was in total shock. His head fell back, smacking against the mud. The sound of distant screams made their way into his head. More gunshots erupted near the dorms. The wolf couldn't help but stare into the dark, cloudy sky. Rain drops kept falling on his head, mixing with his sweat and the blood of the people he had killed earlier.

That's right. . . he killed people. He was a killer. A murderer. But. . . it was all in self-defense. But would people believe that? How many times exactly did he stab that man in the throat? He couldn't remember.

That's a lie.

He did remember.

It was four times; three times in the neck and once in the chest. Four fatal stab wounds, two people. He could remember every moment of it. What did that make him exactly? Was this whole situation really going to sway the jury when they all get tried by this? Kelsi killed a woman with a fire extinguisher, Naomi killed another one by smashing her face in with the bathroom sink, and Erik beat a man half to death. What was happening to them? Was this always there? Did their traumatizing experience change them forever? Were they too far gone? Then Ezekiel came into mind.

These people shot him. They killed him. He was dying and they killed him. What was going on? It's like the world suddenly stopped turning and everyone just snapped all at the same time. The man eating his own flesh, those people trying to break into the bathroom, these soldiers; it's like the entire world was ending.

"What are you going to do to him?! Bring him back!" Kelsi yelled at the soldier next to her.

The officer switched to a channel on his radio, "Omega, omega, we've got civilians." the officer said into his radio.

"District Two is currently burning, we can't send them there. You're just going to have to set base where you're stationed. Blockades should be coming at your whiskey." the soldier on the other side replied.

"Switch to Alpha channel, our dogs haven't been heard from. Stick to the same protocol." the soldier added.

"Alright, it looks like we're staying here a while," the soldier announced to his friends.

"Are you people even listening to me?!" Kelsi barked.

"Ma'am your friend's been hurt, we're trying our best to take care of him." a woman tried calming the vampire bat down.

"He was fine until you people chopped his hand off!" Kelsi snapped.

"She doesn't know?" the woman asked her friends around her.

"She doesn't by the sound of it." a man replied.

"What? Know what?!" Kelsi yelled.

"We need to get these people out of here. Set up our tents near the school. They're going to be bringing in a lot of them we need to start setting up base." the soldier with the radio.

"Ma'am you're going to have to come with us. It's not safe here." a solider tried to help Kelsi up.

"You don't touch me!" the vampire bat yelled.

Erik kept staring at Ezekiel's motionless corpse. His eyes met with the bullet hole that was located on the base of Ezekiel's forehead. His breath was quickening. All the horrible memories had come back and consumed him. He was in a fetal position, tears slowly escaped his eyes. His abdomen felt like it was being compressed. He began to hyperventilate.

"Erik?" Kelsi called out to her panicking boyfriend.

Naomi sat there, staring at her boyfriend's severed bloody paw. The rain nearly washed off all of the blood off of her fur coat, but there were still reddish stains on her torso and her face. She wasn't crying. She wasn't hyperventilating. She just sat there frozen in time. Naomi's body acted the same way it did when Kyle and she were attacked. She hadn't felt like this since. Now, this unexplainable feeling had come back and consumed her as well. This was exactly like the time at the hospital. This lingering feeling was back to haunt her for the first time, again.

Kyle was propped up on his legs, but they didn't move. The wolf's body was exhausted and needed to take a long break. The soldiers carried him through the rain, getting closer to a few brownish-yellowish armored trucks.

"He's been bit," one of the officers holding Kyle announced to his teammates.

"And you know this for sure? Did you check for a bite wound?" an officer inquired, trotting towards the trio.

"He was bleeding from his hand." the soldier who performed the amputation replied.

"But you did check for bite marks, right?" the officer repeated his question.

The soldier got chocked up; he couldn't speak.

"You're shittin' me right? They specifically told us to be on the lookout for bite marks! Tell me you did not just put an innocent civilian's life at stake here?!" the officer barked.

Kyle couldn't pick his head up. He was bleeding out. If they don't get any fluids in his system, he'll die in a matter of minutes. Then. . . maybe they'll shoot him just like they did to Ezekiel.

The thought of that fed his motivation to move his legs in order to flee. He tried pulling himself away from the officer's grips, but he was too weak.

"Woah there, don't hurt yourself. These people put you through enough trouble, no need to make matters worse for yourself." the officer got down to one knee, "Let us help you. You've got you." the officer coaxed.

Kyle stared at the officer with tired eyes. He let out a low groan as a reply.

"I'll take that as a yes. Let's get him inside with the others." the officer ordered.

"What can I do?" the interrogated soldier inquired.

"You can stay here and check the perimeter; you've already done enough." the officer snapped.

The grey wolf was placed on a gurney; his head fell to the side which gave him visibility of his friends in the distance. Naomi was sitting on the muddy ground, Erik was in a fetal position, and Kelsi was hovering over him, probably trying to calm him down. A couple more soldiers walked towards them and stopped. They looked like they were talking to them. Probably explaining what exactly is going on what and what they were going to do to him.

His view was blocked by the folds of a dark-green tent. Three more medical beds were lined up to his right, making up Kyle's field of view. The grey wolf couldn't move his head. He watched as another person was placed on an empty bed next to his. The woman was bleeding from her arm and was screaming. Her screams were loud and clear to Kyle. He couldn't move his paws to cover his ears. Funny, he had already forgotten that he had lost his paw.

Soldiers held the thrashing woman down. Her left arm had a gaping bite mark that exposed the bone underneath. A medic came running in with a shiny, brand new hatchet. He yelled for the people around the woman to hold her down so that she wouldn't hurt herself.

The medic blocked Kyle's view from witnessing the gruesome scene. The medic lifted the hatchet and brought it down quickly, the sound of bone breaking soon followed. Blood splattered and sprayed the neighboring soldiers. Kyle closed his eyes shut, whimpering at the bloodcurdling screams the woman let out that grew in intensity with every bond-crushing swing.

* * *

**New York-Presbyterian/Queens Hospital, Queens County, New York**

A large team sent from the NYHRC had only minutes to set up their decontamination tents. They had to set up the whole complicated system inside, connect all the wires and hoses that would transport distilled water and other chemicals to help spray on patients that were coming in from this unknown illness. It gave some people closure. Others felt like the city was hit with a radiation cloud or something to do with radiation poisoning because of all the people walking around in hazmat suits.

A doctor in a blue hazmat suit sat next to a fallen 'naked' child, doing chest compressions in the hopes of bringing the boy back to life. The doctor looked around her. "Help! I need some help over here!" she yelled.

Emily ran inside, answering the pleading doctor. "I'm here, I'm here!" Emily replied. "What happened?" the mammal asked, checking the child for a pulse.

"He was walking and talking and he just went down." the doctor replied. "The airway is clear, no breath sounds and I can't feel a pulse."

Emily grabbed her pen and shined the light over the young boy's eyes. He showed signs of dilation, so there was no hidden brain injury. "Get a crash cart, a chest tube, and a chest tray now." Emily ordered. "How long has he been down?"

"Almost a minute," the doctor in the hazmat suit replied before getting up.

"Damn it," Emily let out as she took over chest compressions. The mammal turned to the paramedic next to her. "Has he been sprayed yet?" she asked.

"No, ma'am," the paramedic's muffled voice forced its way out of the mask he was wearing.

"Spray him down now!" Emily barked.

"I'm on it!" the paramedic replied, rushing towards the yellow coiled hose that was hanging right above Emily and the patient. He grabbed the head of the hose and pressed the button that sprayed chemicals all over the boy's body. The chemicals got on Emily's chest and arms, causing the paramedic to stop.

"Everywhere! I doesn't matter! Get him everywhere!" Emily barked.

Without hesitating, the paramedic pressed the button once again. Emily kept doing chest compressions until she noticed blood mixing with the clear chemicals. A closer look showed that the boy was bleeding from the left side of his chest.

"Hold on, stop! Stop!" Emily ordered.

The blood had been seeping out from a small hole right next to his right lung. "Dammit, I need a chest tray! Give me a chest tray!" Emily barked, starting chest compressions again.

"Got it!" a voice called from behind her. It was Kowalski running towards her with the sterilized supplies that she needed.

Emily sighed in relief. "Oh my God, thank God you're here!"

"Of course I'm here. Why wouldn't I be here?" Kowalski inquired, setting the chest tray up for Emily. He had only seen this procedure done twice during his entire patrol of the hospital. "What are we doing here?"

"This kid lost vitals from a penetrating injury to the chest. I'm gonna have to open him up." Emily informed.

"You can do this," Kowalski coaxed.

"I know." Emily replied. "Have you heard from Stet yet?" the mammal inquired, grabbing a syringe from the tray.

"No," Kowalski replied with a straight face.

"You have any idea when he's coming back?" Emily asked.

"I don't. But if I hear from him, I'll let you know." Kowalski replied.

"Thanks," Emily said, grabbin a scalpel.

"You got it from here?"

"Yeah, I do. Don't worry."

"Alright, I'm going to go check on Dr. Garner." Kowalski informed the mammal before getting up.

"You do that." Emily responded, slicing into the boy's abdomen.

Kowalski left the sight with dread hanging over his shoulders. His stomach was in a knot and his face was radiating with heat. He let out a sigh of relief knowing Emily bought his lie; but how long could he lie about this until she inevitably finds out? He's just going to have to keep her in the dark until he finds figures out a way to help Stetson recover. . . if he can even find a solution in time.

* * *

**New York Police Department, New York City, New York**

" _Rico!_ " Skipper cried, rushing to his fallen officer.

"There was an explosion and. . . we got in the way or something. . . There's a shit load of people attacking one another out there. We were able to make it out alive but, not without firing my gun. . ." Ray informed.

"Rico, can you hear me? Answer me!" Skipper barked, shaking the injured penguin.

Rico slightly opened his eyes which met with Skipper's. He had to be dreaming.

"What's happening, why isn't he talking?!" Skipper foamed at the mouth.

"He was in an accident! A fuel tank came out of nowhere and crashed into the Madison Square Garden! The whole fucking thing blew up sky-high!" the lemur yelled in a lazy tone. He took off his shirt and hopped on the front desk, checking himself for any hidden cuts or gashes.

A fuel tank. The accident Skipper, Private and that other officer went through crept back up into Skipper's mind. "Fuel tank. We just got back from Times Square, it was bombed by a fuel tank as well." Skipper said grimly, taking off his uniform, folding it, and wrapping it around Rico's charred flipper.

Private stared at the other side of the lobby. Tears started forming in his eyes. The amount of blood that stained Rico's face, chest, arms, and legs sent shockwaves up his spine. How could someone hold that much blood? There was so much of it, it seemed impossible for one lone penguin to carry all of it in his body. Private's flippers started shaking profusely.

Skipper caught on to Private's whimpers. He turned to face the young penguin. He's got two badly injured soldiers with him. Both of which were injured under his watch. He sent them out there to get hurt. This was all his fault. If only he had known the gravity of their current situation, he wouldn't have sent them out there.

"Private," Skipper called out to the quivering penguin.

"Do any of you know what exactly is going on?" the lemur inquired, rubbing the back of his aching back.

"Private, listen to me." Skipper reassured the young penguin, grabbing Private's shuddering flippers. "You're going to get through this. Rico's going to get through this. We're all going to make it through this. I know you're scared, but never forget that no matter what happens, no matter how rough the waters get, we've all got each other. You're never alone, always remember that." Skipper coaxed the young penguin.

Private looked into Skipper's icy blue eyes and nodded. It calmed him down a little bit, but he couldn't shake this feeling of death. It was there since this morning. The moment he saw that man rip what woman's face off. It's that exact second of shock and horror after witnessing that that's currently surrounding him. He doesn't want to feel it anymore. He wants this nightmare to be over and Rico to be alive when this is all over.

"We can't stay here, it's not safe. The military are here, they're helping speeding up the evacuation process. You all need to leave Manhattan now before it becomes next to impossible to get out in one piece." Skipper ordered.

"A soldier told me and my partner that they were evacuating people on busses that would take them across the Brooklyn Bridge. I suggest that we should go there. They've got busses hauled up near Little Italy." an officer informed his teammates.

Skipper nodded, "Alright, whoever wants to leave, they can go. I know you all got family out there, loved ones, people you care about. I get it. There isn't any shame in leaving. Manhattan's gone." Skipper gravely said.

"What makes you say that?" Ray inquired.

"We came across soldiers mowing down on a group of people. Now if what you said is true about that fuel tank, then this whole city is hostile territory. We don't know what's coming. We've got extremists flowing down from the North and the financial district has gone dark. Manhattan's become a war zone for I don't know what. I wouldn't want to stick around to find out." Skipper responded.

"Fair enough," Ray replied.

"I want all of you off of this island. Go now before it's too late." Skipper suggested.

None of the officers moved a muscle. This was all foreign to them. Skipper wouldn't say something like this. He'd always say to keep going and fight on through; maybe this time, it's just out of everyone's reach to try and do something.

"That's an order. Consider it my final one until however long we see each other again." Skipper nodded, acknowledging every officer's work in the HQ.

An officer placed his left arm behind his back and raised his right hand over his right brow, saluting the sheriff. Others soon followed. Ray looked around the lobby and copied everyone else, only half-cocked.

This sent shivers up Skipper's spine. He was proud of each and every one of these people. He looked down upon Rico who was motionless but still breathing. His peripheral vision caught Private saluting him. Skipper raised his right flipper and saluted back.

* * *

**Atlanta University, Atlanta, Georgia**

"He's going to be okay, you hear me?" Kelsi replied to Naomi's statement.

"He could be dead."

"You don't know that." Kelsi snapped.

"And what make you think you know any more than me?" Naomi questioned.

"Because I'm not the one who's giving up. I'm remaining hopeful and my sanity by believing that Kyle is going to make it through this." Kelsi responded.

"I'm not giving up." Naomi stated.

"Then why are you saying that Kyle's dead?!" Kelsi yelled.

"Because we're cursed or something!

"What? What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Kelsi asked in frustration.

"I don't know, I can't even begin to fathom what the hell is going on with our lives! Ever since the shooting, nothing's been the same since! We're all haunted by that day every single day for the rest of our lives. You haven't noticed all that crap we've been through after that? You've never thought for one moment how our lives went downhill after that?" Naomi asked.

"I. . . I-I don't know. I've never been through an experience like that! I haven't been able to feel what you people have been feeling! I don't know what exactly what you people are feeling all the fucking time! You never explain it to me! It's always 'something doesn't feel right', or 'none of this feels real', or 'we're cursed'! I can't feel what you're feeling, Naomi. I'm sorry that the way I deal with things a certain way make you angry because I wasn't there the day Erik got shot. The day Raymond got shot. The day Tanya watched all of her friends die in front of her! The day Mia died! I'm sorry my views of things are different than yours or Erik's or Tanya's or Kyle's or Raymond's! I _wasn't_ there! And every time I try to comfort one of you, I always get shut down because I 'don't know what it feels like'! I'm sorry that I don't but what the fuck am I supposed to do?!" Kelsi finished giving her monologue with tears forming in her eyes. She sat on the rough bed beside her, burying her face in her hands.

Naomi's face radiated with heat from embarrassment. These were the feelings Kelsi had been enduring for the past few years. These feelings had to have been eating her alive this entire time, and they were blind to it. They never did bother to ask Kelsi how she was or how she was coping with certain life events she'd been faced with these past couple of months. They were slowly reverting back to their frightened, scarred, and psychologically traumatized selves; just like on that day of the shooting. How could she have been so blind? How could she have possibly looked past all of this?

The female wolf stepped towards the vampire bat. "Kelsi, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry," Naomi managed to say, her voice beginning to crack. Erik had snapped out of his mental state and was staring at Kelsi. He couldn't help but feel absolutely terrible. He's nothing but a burden for this girl. She was always there for him, but he wasn't returning the favor as of recently. His back felt sweaty from anxiety and humiliation.

Kelsi looked up at the white wolf with saucer eyes. "I can't keep doing this anymore. . ." the vampire bat broke down in tears. It felt like a punch to the stomach. The people she loved were causing her so much pain; it would feel like she had her heart strangled almost every day. She couldn't even think about leaving them, let alone for a while.

"I'm sorry." Naomi teared up.

"Our friends are being shot at by these people, they took Kyle-and-and chopped his hand off. . ." Kelsi let out in between sobs. "I mean, _what the hell is going on_?" Kelsi burst into tears after listing the grave events that had played out this afternoon. She realized the entire gravity of their situation and for the first time in her life, she was scared for her life.

"I know, I know." Naomi whispered to her, giving the weeping vampire bat an embrace.

Naomi and Erik met eyes. Kelsi's right. What the hell is going on?

* * *

**Little Italy, New York City, New York**

Black smoke began to rise from the tip of Manhattan's financial district. This sent chills up Skipper's spine as it reminded him of that day the world stood still. A flipper grabbed his, snapping him out of his thought. It was Private.

"Are you all right, Skippah?" the young penguin asked.

Skipper looked down at Private. "Of course I am. When am I never all right?"

"I could think of a few instances," Private thought.

"Why do you ask?"

"I'm just worried about you."

Skipper chuckled. "You don't have to be worried about me. I can take care of myself."

"But you don't think I can." Private said softly.

"And what makes you think that?" Skipper asked, raising a brow.

"I thought about what you said to me earlier. How I was scared and that I didn't need to be. I don't know, but it sounded like I was weak and I don't know what's going on. I do know. Rico's hurt. I'm hurt. You're hurt. We all get hurt, it's just that I get a little nervous sometimes; I can't help it. I just felt like I was being talked down upon." Private lowered his head.

"Private, you're my family. It's my job to make you feel safe no matter the way I do it. I know you can take care of yourself, you've made it this far and I'm proud of you. But, you're still young. I'm not saying that you're weak; I'm just saying this because I don't want to lose you. With all this happing all at once, I didn't want you to become desensitized so quickly or mentally scarred. You'll overcome these obstacles eventually, but I just wanted this version of Private to stick around a little longer. That may make me selfish but that's just how protective I am over you; how much I care for you. You're my brother, Private." Skipper placed his flipper on the young penguin's shoulder. "Kowalski, Rico, Marlene, we're all family."

"But we didn't come from the same mother," Private replied.

"Blood makes you related; loyalty makes you family." Skipper stated. "Family is more than just blood. I would die just to keep you safe. Keep Kowalski safe, keep Rico safe. There isn't anything I wouldn't do for either one of you."

Skipper faced Private, "We'll survive, I'll show you how." the sheriff reassured.

Private's face lit up. "Okay, Skippah."

"Skipper," Ray called.

They had arrived at the bus ports. This was where people were being evacuated by escaping through the Brooklyn Bridge. Hundreds of animals crowded near the line of buses that were filling up quickly.

"Stay close," Skipper ordered, grabbing on to Private's flipper.

Ray stood still in the vast ocean of fleeing refugees whilst helping Rico stand, who was still slightly dazed. Animals pushed and shoved others out of their way in order to reach the buses. Skipper trotted beside Ray. "Should we try and search for another bus port?" the lemur inquired.

"No, they're all probably like this." Skipper answered; inspecting the distance they had left to reach the port. A soldier was flashing a light on people's eyes, checking for something.

"This all feels like something straight out of a movie." Ray stated. "It'll probably be only a few minutes before–"

"Ladies and gentlemen!" a soldier with a loudspeaker announced. "There will be more buses! We've got about a dozen of them heading our way from Queens County, they should be arriving from the bridge at any moment, no need to push and shove! There's going to be enough room for everybody!"

Queens County. Marlene's probably still there. Private turned to Skipper after hearing the same words.

This calmed the crowd by a whole lot. People began filing in the remaining buses in an orderly-ish fashion. Ray looked around him in disbelief. Well I guess that just proved that life isn't like the movies. . ." the lemur sighed.

"We better hurry before they run out of space." Private suggested, already dreading the worst in his head. Skipper had the same dreadful idea. The sheriff nodded and the group was on the move again.

* * *

**New York-Presbyterian/Queens Hospital, Queens County, New York**

Emily sat on one of the chairs in the lobby. She stared out past the window panes and on to the New York City skyline. Stet was out there somewhere. The feeling of being in the dark was too much for her. She felt like she had lost a piece of her and it slowly drifted away, yet she was still unable to reach out and grab it. The lights went out for the fourth time in the past hour. She reached for her radio that Stet had given to her in case of an emergency. To her, this was an emergency.

She reached for the communication device just before the rumbling happened. The windows began to vibrate from the intensity of the sound of a flying object that was passing by. Only, there was more than one.

* * *

Rico's eye was scanned by the soldier's flashlight. His eyes showed signs of dilation. Upon seeing Rico's arm, the soldier stopped Ray from taking another step. The soldier pointed at Rico's flipper. "What happened to him?" the soldier inquired.

"There was an accident near Madison. Explosion; we just got caught in the middle of it." Ray answered the man in uniform.

The soldier looked up at the sky. White smoke arose from the middle of the island, proving Ray's story. The soldier nodded, thus continuing on to inspect Ray's eyes.

Up next was Private. The soldier held up his flashlight, inspecting both of the young penguin's eyes. Both were clear. The soldier nodded and allowed Private to hop on the blue bus in front of him.

Next was Skipper.

A soldier walked down the steps of the bus. "There's not enough room, we're over capacity." the man told the soldier inspecting people's eyes. Skipper's heart skipped a beat.

"Wait!" Private cried out, hopping off of the bus.

"Private,"

"I'm not leaving without you!" Private snapped.

"It's okay, Private. I'll just take the next bus out of here. It's fine. I'll be fine." Skipper tried to talk Private to get back in the bus. "Rico's in there. He's hurt, like you said. Now protect him like I would protect you." Skipper ordered.

Private stared worryingly at Skipper. He nodded and climbed back inside the bus. He took the window seat of where Ray and Rico were sitting and stared at Skipper as the bus door's closed. The engine roared and the driver stepped on the gas. Private placed a flipper on the glass. Tears began to form in Privates eyes as he grew further way from his leader. Skipper waved goodbye; and before he knew it, he was gone.

* * *

Emily stared in shock as the objects fired something at the city. She screamed, but the glass made it inaudible.

* * *

There weren't any buses coming. That was just a lie to keep people calm. Skipper continued to stare where he last saw Private's face. It was only ten minutes after they had left. He was trapped here. He sacrificed his life to save his teammates.

That's when the rumbling began. The sound of fighter jets grew closer. The sheriff rushed to see what was happening. That's when he saw them. Skipper's inaudible screams of agony escaped his throat as the missiles made contact with the bridge.


	7. Inferno: Part Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so I've got a few songs that should DEFINITELY be played in the background while reading this chapter. Sadly, none of these songs are actually "official", they're actually soundtracks of a popular show (a show everyone should watch). You're just gonna have to YouTube these.
> 
> The first song is called "Out of Time". Just search for "6.03 - 14" on YouTube, and it's the very first one. Like always, when you see the ':' symbol, play the song.
> 
> The second song is called "A Moment of Hope". I've used this one in the last chapter, so why not use it again? Just search "A Moment of Hope" in the search-bar and click on the very first one with the thumbnail of a tower. Look for the second ':', then play it.
> 
> The third song is called "No Way Out". Search for "No Way Out B. Claimed" and it's the video with Rick Grimes on the thumbnail. Look for the THIRD ':' symbol and play the song. This is probably my favorite track on here, so IT'S WORTH IT. Definitely play THIS one, it'll make reading the scene much more better and intense.

**New York City, New York**

The projectiles ignited into four fiery balls of orange flame, billowing upwards, spilling into the atmosphere. Nearby vehicles and animals were engulfed by the wall of searing flame, instantaneously turning into unrecognizable charred remains. Glass windows burst upon the shockwaves emitted by the blasts.

Huge chucks of brick and concrete were flung into the air. The bridge's spider web like suspender cables twisted and detached from their rivets, whipping up into the air like vipers lashing out at its prey. With its main deck turned into a cloud of dust and debris, the bridge buckled under its own weight. Both sides began to collapse. More steel cables snapped and whipped across the bridge's aisles decapitating and splitting civilians in half, adding more to the chaotic noise pollution.

The deck of the bridge plummeted into the Hudson River, taking hundreds of lives with it. Water was kicked up with every large mass of wood, concrete, and steel, splashing up against the eastern side of the island. The iconic Gothic-designed towers crumbled and came apart, plunging into the river, generating larger waves. The Brooklyn Bridge went down in a fiery blaze. The Manhattan Bridge to its left was next to go under in a ball of fire. Every bridge leading in and out of Manhattan was bombed.

The ground trembled from the intensity of the blasts as Skipper ran towards the freeway that led to the collapsing bridge. He watched as the two brick towers began crumbling and disappearing behind the buildings. His heart was racing and his lower abdomen was struck with a sharp pain that grew in intensity with each step.

But he didn't care. His mind was too preoccupied with the fact that he just sent his friends to their deaths to even notice the stabbing pain that crept up into his chest. His lungs felt like they were going to explode. His mouth and throat were dry from exhaustion and dehydration. People around him were running in the opposite direction. Some were carrying others who had made it off of the bridge severely injured. If injured people had already begun exiting the bridge, where was his team? They should have been out here somewhere, and not thirty feet under water. That's if they actually made it.

**:**

He saw one of the buses stranded in the middle of the road with people flooding out of it. He quickened his pace before someone would hijack it and drive it somewhere else with Private and Rico still in it.

"Private?! Rico?!" Skipper cried out, trying to get a look inside the bus.

Another pair of explosions were heard in the distance, but were still able to shake the ground. Skipper looked over to where the blasts were coming from. The sun was beginning drown in the horizon. The last few drops of the sun's red-orange rays were casted over Skipper's face, reflecting upon the beads of sweat that were all over his face and chest. The streets and buildings behind him had also turned a red-orange, making it seem like the entire city was up in flames.

The last person had gotten off the bus without him even knowing. The sound of the engine starting again caught him off guard. He turned and ran up the steps, searching for his friends. The sheriff turned to the driver, "A lemur and two penguins, have you seen them?" Skipper inquired, his voice trembling.

"I've seen one penguin, but not a lemur." the bus driver replied, shifting the gears of the vehicle.

Skipper's heart skipped a beat. "Where?" Skipper frantically asked.

"He ran in that direction." the driver pointed to where the other passengers were running. Skipper grew weary. Did he just miss them? "Look, I can take you somewhere safe. Come with us." the bus driver informed the sheriff.

The penguin glanced at the few people still on the bus. He shook his head as a tear escaped his eye. "No," the penguin weakly replied.

The flat-headed penguin stepped off of the bus, looking over the distance. He didn't see anyone. None of the fleeing passengers were visible anymore. He placed a flipper on his forehead before shouting: "Private! Rico!" out into the far distance.

The bus began departing, leaving Skipper all by himself. Alone.

 _Where were they? They can't be gone. They all can't be gone. They're alive. They've all made it somewhere, just keep looking. Don't give up hope._ The sheriff looked towards the river. The Brooklyn Bridge was gone. Everyone was gone. Skipper felt a lump in his throat, as well as his face radiating with heat. He collapsed on his knees. His eyes began to water. He looked up into the sky before shutting his eyes closed.

"Skippah?" a voice called behind him.

**:**

Skipper's eyes opened slowly. His body relaxed as relief took over. His heart slowed. A faint smile came upon his face. The sheriff lowered his head, laughing at the person's voice. He recognized it anywhere. The sheriff turned around, facing Private who had tears running down his face.

"Skippah!" the young penguin cried, running up to his leader and giving him a warm embrace.

Skipper returned the favor. "I knew you weren't dead." Skipper sighed in relief.

"What now?" Ray inquired, helping Rico stand on his two legs.

The sheriff glanced at the weapons expert's face. His forehead was sweaty and his eyes were sunken back. He'd lost so much blood; they need to take him somewhere safe so that he could be treated.

Skipper and Private let go of each other. Skipper waddled over to Rico and placed his flipper on the weapons expert's shoulder. "Let's get you somewhere safe. We need to treat that arm of yours. Yours and Private's." Skipper said to Rico.

Rico nodded in agreement.

"And where's 'safe'?" Ray inquired. "The bridges are down, and the nearest hospital that can treat something like this is on the opposite side of the island."

"Then we find a boat." Skipper replied.

Ray raised a brow before looking past Skipper. He narrowed his eyes to get a better look at what he was seeing.

"What?" Skipper inquired, turning around.

Out in the distance, a few animals were shuffling past the pillars of smoke was the Brooklyn Bridge. Skipper waddled closer to get a better look. More people exited the wall of smoke, and then more and more joined them. The sounds of growls and low groans finally reached their ears. Rico recognized those sounds. He heard the exact same noises back at the Madison Square Garden. His body jerked with adrenaline. He began to mutter out incomprehensible words out of his mouth, and tried to get away from _them_.

**:**

Skipper recognized the sounds as well. These were the things those soldiers back at Times Square were shooting at. The closer they got, the clearer their faces were. Some were charred bodies with smoke pluming out from some of the cracks of their skin. Others had chunks of flesh hanging off the sides of their faces. One had its entire face melted off with one eye still remaining, its skull exposed.

Skipper took a few steps back. "We should go." the sheriff ordered. A few of the reanimated corpse's heads looked up and spotted them. They began to walk faster towards them and reached out their arms. The other fifty behind them caught on and did the same. They all began to sprint towards Skipper and his team.

"Go! Go! Go! Go! GO!" Skipper barked.

The group jolted forward. Ray helped Rico in running away from the bloodied atrocities.

"C'mon buddy, now's the time to use all the energy you've got left so we don't _die_." the lemur informed his injured friend.

The group made it to Foley Square, which was twenty feet away, where many other animals were running away from the coast. Gunshots were heard in the distance. The shots later seemed to be coming from every direction. Helicopter blades spun just above them and away from the center of the city.

A helpless animal was found lying on the cement in a pool of her own blood as a group of zombies were tearing her apart. Their claws teared through her stomach and began sifting through the first layer of organs. Blood poured from her mouth as she reached her hand out for help.

Skipper pulled out his revolver from its holster and pulled the trigger, shooting one of the zombies in the chest. The reanimated corpse was knocked down from the force of the blast, but that didn't stop the rest from feasting.

"Leave her! We gotta go!" Ray yelled at Skipper.

Another helicopter flew overhead, watching the streets below. Nearly every street was filled to the brim with zombies. They all were migrating towards the Eastern part of the city, following the explosions from earlier. The sea of reanimated corpses surged through the streets of central Manhattan, all heading towards Skipper's area.

Ray pulled out his firearm and began shooting at the walking corpses next to him. Their dead eyes made contact with his, scaring him and causing him to waste more bullets trying to kill them.

"Conserve your ammo! There's a whole flood of them coming right at us!" Skipper barked, pointing down the roads ahead of them. The heads of hundreds of zombies flooding down the streets in the distance confirmed Skipper's demands of saving their bullets.

"Oh, shit. . ." Ray let out.

"We need to get on the opposite side of this thing! Find a place to _hide_!"

Private pointed to one of the stores ahead of them that were down the street, which was closer to the wave of reanimated corpses. "There! We can hide in there!" the young penguin exclaimed.

Skipper turned to where Private was pointing. "Go! Over there, go!" Skipper barked, shooting a zombie close to him in the shoulder. The first line of stores and boutiques were already being filled with animals, they had no choice but to go further down the street.

Ray pulled the trigger of his gun, sending lead into one of the zombie's head that stood in front of the doors of the store they were going to hide in. He kicked the corpse out of the way and opened the door.

"In here, c'mon!" Ray yelled.

Skipper shot another zombie that got a little too close. When he turned around, he watched Private trip and fall. He picked up his pace and helped the young penguin up on his feet. "I've got you, c'mon." Skipper said as he led Private inside the store.

"Shut it!" Skipper barked.

Ray shut the door closed and watched as zombies piled on the glass doors and window panes, blocking their view of the outside. Their bloodied faces pressed up against the glass, smearing blood and grease on the glass panes.

"You okay?" Skipper asked Private.

"Who are you?" a man inquired.

Skipper looked up to find a small group of other animals hiding in the store. Skipper paused, "I–"

The front windows and glass doors shattered from the sheer amount of weight being applied to them. Zombies quickly began flooding inside. There was no time to introduce each other.

"Shit, shit, shit!" Ray yelled, carrying Rico away from the front of the store.

Skipper fired his revolver at one of the closer zombies, taking out its left eye in a mist of blood. "Go! Find a way out of here!" the sheriff barked.

"There's a back door, I can take you there!" the man informed.

"GO!" Skipper barked.

"This way!" the man replied, leading his and Skipper's people out of the store's front entrance.

The group ran towards the back of the store. They were led past the **EMPLOYEE'S ONLY** door which led to the storage space and back door out of the establishment. The men opened the door, sounding off the building's alarm system. Zombies on the street that had already passed the store were drawn back.

Two girls ran outside, followed by Ray and Rico. Skipper was busy pulling down racks of clothes to block the zombie's path. Private exited the building to find Ray firing at a zombie.

"Shit, I'm out!" Ray exclaimed.

"Here, take mine!" Private yelled, tossing his Glock to the lemur.

"Let's go!" the man barked at Skipper.

A stray zombie ran close to the sheriff, making Skipper fire his weapon. The zombie collapsed while Skipper made it past the door and the man soon followed. When the zombie hit the floor, it lunged out, grabbing the man's leg and pulling him down.

The man shrieked in fear and stretched his arms out, grabbing Skipper and pulling him down as well.

"Skippah!" Private cried.

"Help me!" the man cried out before zombies swarmed him and began tearing into him.

Skipper watched helplessly as the man's face was viciously torn from his skull. Ray sent a bullet into the man's skull in order for him to let go of Skipper. Private grabbed Skipper's flipper, "Let's go!" the young penguin yelled at the still traumatized leader.

The sheriff picked himself up and followed Private. Hundreds of zombies were right behind them, all growling and arms extended. The group passed an alley that had a few people hiding in. Ray fired Private's gun, knocking down the zombies that were about to flood in.

"This way, follow us!" Ray barked. The small group fled the alleyway and followed Skipper's group.

"Up ahead!" a woman yelled, pointing at one of the stores that had people flooding inside. A man ran up the entrance to close off the store in order to keep them and the zombies out.

"Wait!" Private wailed.

A large sheet of metal was brought down, cutting our group off of the store's entrance.

"Dammit!" Ray yelled.

"We'll find another way out! Leave it!" Skipper ordered.

Zombies had begun to flood the intersection ahead of them, cutting off their only way to get passed and out the horde of reanimated corpses. Ray turned around, only to be faced with the other wave of zombies. Every road was filled with them. They were flooding in from the street ahead and behind them. They were caught in the middle. There was no way out of this. They were trapped.

Skipper raised his revolver to fire, but found that his weapon was out of bullets. The group of people that followed them began to panic.

"Skippah?" Private whimpered.

Ray raised his firearm to fire, "I'm not going down without a fight!" the lemur yelled.

Gunshots were heard to their right. Zombies began to drop to the ground. Skipper flinched at the gunshots, only later to hear a voice calling his name.

"In here! Skipper, in here!" an officer barked. He was standing outside the entrance of the subway station which led underground.

"Go, GO! C'MON!" Skipper barked, frantically running away with Private and the others from the horde of zombies. Skipper and the others ran down the steps, barely escaping the massive swarm of zombies that had just filled the street they were standing in.

* * *

**New York-Presbyterian/Queens Hospital, Queens County, New York**

Kowalski steered the gurney into an empty room. He switched the lights on, sending stinging photons straight into Stetson's eyes. The avian shielded his eyes from the luminescent ceiling. Kowalski turned the lights back off.

"Sorry, do you want them off?" Kowalski inquired.

"Please, it's just unbearable at the moment." Stetson replied, uncovering his eyes.

"Well, with our luck so far, they're bound to shut off again in a few minutes anyways." Kowalski sighed. The hospital's generator was in and out. The lights would come on once in a while only to turn off just a few moments later.

"How are you feeling?" Kowalski asked his sickly friend, half-knowing the answer.

"I'm hanging in. Don't know why, but the lights make it feel like a hundred needles are piercing my eyeballs. Makes my forehead ache something crazy too. Also feel a little awkward sitting next to you. Didn't really waking up this morning knowing you were going to bathe me and see my junk, so there's _that_. It usually takes a few drinks in order for anyone to get _that_ far." Stet joked, shifting his pillow to get more comfortable.

Kowalski grabbed Stet's pillow to fluff it, "It was a decontamination shower. And it had to be. I don't trust anyone knowing you're here." the officer replied, placing the cushion behind Stet's back.

The bird laid back, "What about Marlene? Those nurses? You trust them?" Stet inquired.

"Marlene yes. It was inevitable for anyone else to see you in here. What I was trying to get at is that it's best to keep you under the hospital's radar before someone goes up and tells Emily that you're here."

"Fair point." Stet supposed.

"You mind if I. . .?" Kowalski asked, reaching out his flipper.

Stet glanced at the tall penguin. He nodded, lifting up his plain white gown. Kowalski lifted the blanket, revealing Stetson's bandage. Blood had already begun to seep through the cotton. Kowalski let out a desolate sigh.

"How bad is it?" Stetson inquired.

Kowalski shoot his head. "We can do better." the tall penguin replied.

"How is he?" a female voice sounded from behind Kowalski.

"He's awake and stable for now. I intend to keep him that way until the chief is available." Kowalski replied. "How is it out there, Marlene?"

"It's beginning to quiet down out there. It's still chaotic, but not as much as when we got here." the female otter responded. "What did Emily say?"

Kowalski glanced at Stetson. The brown thrasher kept quiet. Marlene caught on.

"You haven't told her?" Marlene responded in disbelief.

"Eventually," Stetson replied. "I was going to tell her eventually."

"Have you not seen what it's like out there? Have you not seen how distraught Emily is? She keeps asking people if they've gotten word of you. She's worried about you, she deserves to know."

"That's exactly why I'm not telling her. She's busy out there; they need her out there. She needs to be focused, if she ever stops focusing on her job while in surgery or when shooting some medicine into some guy's arm, there's a possibility for her to screw up. I'm helping her by not telling her that I'm here." Stetson defended.

"She's thinking about you every second of every hour that she's here. She's your wife–"

"We're not married yet,"

"And that makes it justified? What if you die, Stet?" Marlene questioned.

"Marlene," Kowalski called.

"What if something terrible happens to you here? She's part of the code team, isn't she? What if she finds out where you've been this entire time by finding you when here, coding and she's on the other side of this glass window, watching people crowd around you, trying to restart your heart?" Marlene questioned. "She will never forgive you for that, you know that."

Stet lowered his head. Marlene's argument made sense. What if something bad does happen to him? The bird lifted his head, "I need the room to myself, please."

"Stet–"

"Please! Just. . . just go." the bird pleaded.

Kowalski turned to the female otter standing just outside. She shook her head, leaving the room. The tall penguin rolled the pink separation curtain, blocking off view into Stetson's bed before closing the door.

"What are you doing? I said leave."

"You heard Marlene. Something bad could happen to you. You could code and no one would be here to call it. You're gonna need people by your side. I hear by establish that someone should be by your side for every waking hour of the day until you're better. You don't need to go through this alone." the tall penguin reassured.

* * *

**Atlanta University, Atlanta, Georgia**

Raymond made a left turn that was emitting bright red and blue lights. He was soon met with a blockade and soldiers with automatic rifles at hand. He lifted his head, trying to see past the men and women in uniform, trying to get a clear view of the campus.

A female soldier accompanied by another walked up to Raymond's prehistoric vehicle. She spoke something into her radio before signaling Raymond to roll down his windows. The lemur did as asked.

"What brings you here?" the female soldier inquired.

"I received a call from one of my friends, something about being trapped in a restroom." the lemur answered.

"The phone lines are down," the woman narrowed her eyes.

"I received the call before the lines went down. I was stationed at Twin Peaks Memorial, on the opposite side of the city. I would have come sooner, but traffic was a nightmare. I couldn't go through the city." Raymond laid his arm on the door, "Why's that?" Raymond interrogated.

The woman looked off into the distance, "The entire city's in complete lock down. That's all we've been told. Boss told us to station here, get people who made it out of the city here."

"Did you ask him yet?" the male soldier behind her asked.

"Ask me what?" Raymond inquired.

The woman sighed. "Sir, I'm gonna have to ask you to exit your vehicle. We need to inspect it."

"You think I'm one of those shooters?" the lemur asked, raising a brow.

"It's just a precaution. Make sure you're not hiding any weapons under the seats or compartments."

Raymond looked at the soldier who kept staring at him. The lemur leaned closer. "If I wanted to attack the school, I would've loaded this truck with explosives, unmanned of course, send it your direction and detonate it. That's you taken care of and all attention to this local area. That means the exact opposite side of the school zone would theoretically be less guarded, making an opening. That's if I was an amateur, of course. You people look like you've just got here, I would have at least checked the perimeter, count how many guards you have, your shifts. Wait a couple of hours until sun down. Launch my attack then."

The woman grabbed her rifle.

"I watch a lot of Forensic Files." Raymond gave a faint smile while climbing out of his truck.

"Spread 'em."

Raymond spread his legs and held his arms in the air, jumping-jack position. The female soldier walked behind him, kicking Raymond's legs further apart.

"Any further, I can't promise _not_ falling on top of you." Raymond informed.

The woman ran her hands up Raymond's cargo pants. Nothing. "And I can't exactly promise _not_ shooting you if you do."

A single gunshot was heard in the distance. Raymond's head quickly turned towards the sound of the blast. "That came from the school?"

The female soldier's radio came alive, "Omega, omega, we've got civilians."

She grabbed her radio, "District Two is currently burning, we can't send them there. You're just going to have to set base where you're stationed. Blockades should be coming at your whiskey." the soldier on the other side replied.

The female soldier ran up to the soldier that stood on the other side of the blockade.

"Wait, was that from the school?!" the lemur asked, running after her.

"Stay put!" a soldier barked at the lemur, raising his weapon at him.

"Switch to Alpha channel, our dogs haven't been heard from. Stick to the same protocol." the woman added.

"What about my friends?!" Raymond barked before he was blocked by two soldiers.

The woman turned around. "Let him through, he's with me!"

Raymond shoved the two militants out of his way. "What about the truck?" one of them asked.

The lemur grabbed his keys and threw them at the soldier. "I don't want a scratch on her! She's already got enough of 'em!" the lemur yelled, trying to catch up with the female soldier ahead of him.

* * *

**Below New York City, New York**

"How much farther?!" Skipper barked.

"Not much, keep running they're right behind us!" the officer yelled back, while shining his flashlight behind the group, revealing the lowered heads of hundreds of reanimated corpses that were all racing their way towards their prey.

The officer's eyes widened. He faced the flashlight ahead of him, illuminating the long stretch of tunnel that was left for them to cover. "Just up ahead!"

The growls and groans echoed down the tunnel, reminding them that they were there. That they would always be there, in the dark, waiting. It was as if they were mocking them. No matter what your current circumstance, no matter your injuries, no matter what you've been through, they will always be there. Out there. Waiting.

As they approached the end of the tunnel, the man waved his flashlight around, signaling someone. "The gate! Get the gate!" the officer ordered.

A person appeared upon the officer's commands. The flashlight illuminated his physical attributes: a Border Collie. The canine quickly reached for the handle of the metal gate she would use to block out the atrocities from outside.

"C'mon!" the Border Collie shouted at the group.

The officer with the flashlight made it to the subway's platform followed by Ray and Rico. The Border Collie began shutting the gate once the last person made it through the dark tunnel. Once the metal crashed against the tiled floor, on cue, the zombies collided with the metal sheet, warping it with everybody pushing up against it.

Skipper hunched over; out of breath and dripping with sweat from exhaustion. His heart felt like it was going to explode from his chest. He was surprised how far his short legs had gotten him. He looked over to those who were out of the darkness by the single beam of light.

The sheriff stood up straight, "Thank you,"

"No problem. I was just about to head in here myself before I saw you and your friends." the officer replied. "You do remember me, right?"

"Riggs, of course." Skipper replied. "You haven't heard from anyone outside?" the sheriff inquired.

"It's all the same out there, so I've heard. It's being contained."

"You mean the things that are trying to claw their way in here? When I heard the military was coming to Manhattan to contain something, I was sort of expecting the people rioting, not theses flesh-eating creatures from the pits of hell." Ray responded.

"What are these things anyways?" one of the women from the clothing store inquired.

"I have no idea, but I sure as hell do not want to stick around and find out." Riggs replied.

"They're _dead_." the Border Collie grimly replied.

"What?" Riggs inquired.

"Out there, I saw a couple of army guys shooting at these things. No matter where the bullets hit them, they don't die. They don't give up. Nothing alive I know can do that." the Border Collie answered.

Riggs shined his flashlight on the canine's face. "You _on_ something?" the officer interrogated.

"I know this sounds crazy, but what else would you call them?" the canine snapped. "What's the _explanation_ here?"

"Maybe you're right. . ." Private spoke. "Skippah and I saw one of these creatures _eating_ someone on the side of the road. Three times, actually. I don't think anyone _rational_ would be able to do _that_." the young penguin lowered his head.

"I may not know the answer to these questions, but what I do know is that we can't stay here much longer." Skipper's voice broke through the darkness. "These things will get through _anything_ in order to get to us."

"You've seen them up close, what are they like?" a man hidden in the darkness inquired.

"I know that they're not like us. These things were like us, but not anymore. Something's made them this way. Calling them dead is a pit of a stretch. I've seen a man amped up on some bath salts take six bullets to the anterior. Though saying drugs is the one to blame here is a stretch as well, which is why I'm thinking there must've been some sort of bio-attack." Skipper assumed.

The atmosphere became heavy in an instant before the canine spoke up.

"It makes sense. The broadcast warning us to evacuate the city right before the blackout began, the military rolling through, shooting down these things, the bombings we heard from the outside, it all makes sense in a way. There must have been a chemical attack somewhere on the island. Maybe poisoned the water? That explains why all these people are acting so strange." the canine thought out loud.

"Those bombs you heard?" Ray's voice echoed, "They were taking out the bridges leading in and out of Manhattan."

Ray's statement sent chills down the canine's spine. "You're shitting me."

"I shit you not. When we regrouped, the swarm you're hearing behind that gate came out of absolutely nowhere and tried to eat us like most of the unfortunate people above us." the lemur added.

"They're quarantining the entire island." the canine whispered to herself.

"They're what?"

"They're quarantining the island. They're cutting off every entrance in and out of the city. They're trapping us in here. This wasn't the work of a bio-attack on the city. The threat has always been here, we just couldn't see it. It's the flu that's been going around. That must be what's causing this. That's why the military's here. That's why they're bombing the bridges. They're _containing_ it." the canine came to her conclusion.

"If what you're saying is true, then this flu. . ." Skipper spoke.

"Then every one of us in here has been exposed." the canine gravely finished the sheriff's sentence.

* * *

**Operation Room, New York-Presbyterian/Queens Hospital, Queens County, New York**

Kowalski waddled towards the surgical floor where his friends were at. A nurse had told informed him earlier that Dr. Garner and the Chief were still inside operating.

"On your right!" a nurse yelled.

The tall penguin turned to see a nurse carrying two full bags of O- blood to where Dr. Garner was stationed. To see a nurse having to run with bags of blood made Kowalski's stomach churn. What _else_ happened?

Kowalski bolted forward, busting through the operation room's door and was met with four people digging into a patient's chest cavity and dumping out handfuls of coagulated blood. The Chief pulled his paw out and threw another fistful of coagulated blood onto the large surrounding blue sheet of surgical paper with a _splat_.

"How are we doing over there?" Dr. Garner asked, draining the small blob of blood that was collecting inside the patient's brain.

"We need more blood over here! Where is that damn blood?!"

"Right here, Chief!" the nurse from earlier replied, exchanging a dried up bag of blood with one of the newer ones she brought in.

At that moment, the lights switched back on.

"Alright, I think I've got the bleeding under control." the Chief announced.

"Same here, he stopped bleeding into his brain but the question still stands: Is this person going to be the same after this?" Dr. Garner asked. "I want a reflex test."

A nurse stepped forward with a medical instrument and ran it up one of the patient's feet. Nothing. "Dr. Garner," the nurse called.

"Alright, check his pupils." the neurosurgeon ordered.

The nurse walked up the opposite side of the table. She grabbed one of her flashlight pens and shined it on one of the eyes of the patient. No response. No dilation. She checked the other eye. It was the same. The nurse looked up at the neurosurgeon and shook her head. The patient was brain dead for a while.

The Chief's eyes met the ground. Dr. Garner nodded his head and slowly walked away from the table. He turned to the counter near him and supported himself against it. With one quick swipe, he knocked down and threw everything on the counter on the floor in frustration. This made Madeline jump.

Dr. Garner lifted his head, "Time of death. . . six-forty-seven."

Kowalski left the OR before anyone noticed. He slowly waddled toward the main desk. People ran past him in every direction, completely unaware that the hospital just lost another patient. Another one to add to the pile of corpses that are spilling out of the morgue. People were dropping like flies. The entire hospital felt like a graveyard. He turned his head to see a large LCD TV broadcasting the news.

**Chuck Charles: …center of the crisis at New York-Presbyterian/Queens Hospital. Scott, what can you tell us? What have you learned at the hospital?**

**Scott: Well Chuck, there's concern now that the skin reactions on patients we're hearing about could possibly be caused by radiation from a so-called dirty bomb.**

People watching started clamoring, talking over each other upon what was supposedly happening in New York.

"Dammit," Kowalski muttered to himself, running to where the anchorman was filming in the hospital.

**Scott: And the fear is it might not be easily treatable as an attack from chemicals, as we previously thought, but the fact is–**

**Kowalski: The fact is that you don't know.**

**Scott: Oh, uh, here's an officer with me now. Sir, what do you think is–**

**Kowalski: What I think is that you're lying to them. You're lying to everyone. You are saying anthrax. You're saying radiation. No one else is! The fact is that we don't know how bad this thing is, okay? So stop wondering out loud, report what you _know_ , and stop scaring people for no evident reason!**

Kowalski faced the camera.

**Kowalski: I mean. . . what, who let you people in here?! Get out! Go! Turn off the camera.**

Kowalski held his flipper and covered the camera's lens, followed by the sound of static crackling. The news channel lost the feed in the hospital and switched to a nervous Chuck Charles.

**Chuck Charles: Uh, well, we seem to have lost Scott there. Tensions seem to be running pretty high, as one would expect in such a hazardous situation. Stay with us for more complete coverage. We will be right back.**


	8. Inferno: Part Three

Below New York City, New York

Riggs pointed his flashlight at the two glass cases. Each held a map of New York City's underground subway routes. They listed where each train, subway, and light rail station in the island of Manhattan were and their entangling routes that ran in and out of the island.

"Alright, we're currently stationed here," the Border Collie pointed on the glass, "in Canal Street. If we just head East, down those tracks, we'll be out of Manhattan without even having to deal with any of the undead freaks above us."

Skipper scanned the map. The canine's plan could work but it was missing something essential: their way to the hospital. He wanted to be out of the enemy's grip for as long as possible. "We'll take North, up Broadway. That'll take us near Times Square which'll interject with 42nd Street's station route. It'll lead us out of the island and straight to Flushing." the sheriff planned.

"But that's twice as far. You'll be risking making contact with more survivors if you head up north to the red zone. I really suggest going East towards safety, not straight into the belly of the beast." the Border Collie challenged.

Skipper narrowed his eyes "We're going North." Skipper replied, nodding to his team.

The Border Collie raised a brow. "What's in Flushing?" the canine inquired, crossing her arms.

"A hospital. I'll spare you the details." the sheriff vaguely answered.

"Alright then. So, does anyone have a camera or a phone so that we can take a picture of these maps?"

"No need." Skipper replied, grabbing his revolver and smashing the bottom of his gun against the glass, creating a spider-web-like break on the panel. With one more swing, the glass case shattered with shards raining down onto the ground. The sheriff leaned in and grabbed the map, taking it out of its case.

The Border Collie stared at him. "What?" Skipper inquired.

"I would have done that too if it weren't for the six or seven cops staring at me."

"Not even then." Skipper said, handing the map to the canine. He waddled over to the next glass case and smashed through the glass, grabbing the second map for his group. "We ready?"

"We've been ready." Ray replied, loading Private's gun with his last clip.

"Skipper," Riggs called, "I think I'm gonna head East. I just can't risk heading back deeper into the island. I just need to see my family. I'm sorry."

Skipper placed his revolver back into its holster. "Don't worry about that. I'm not going to stay here and try to convince you to come with me. I'm not going to drag another man into my own family's obstacles. I'm forever in your debt for saving us back there. That goes for Ray as well. You could have just left us up there, but you didn't. You don't owe us anything. You're free to go, but as for Ray?" Skipper chuckled, "I sure as hell know that Ray's not going to be leaving any time soon."

"Hell no," Ray interjected, "I'm already in too deep with you folks; no reason separating now."

"There's no shame in leaving. You go be with your family. I hope you find them safe and sound." Skipper conveyed, placing his flipper on Riggs's shoulder.

Riggs looked Skipper in the eyes, "Thank you, Sir."

The sheriff nodded. He brought Riggs in closer, "You make sure you get these people out of these tunnels in one piece. Try to save as many as you can." Skipper whispered.

Riggs nodded.

"Alright then," Skipper turned to the Border Collie, "guess this is where we go our separate ways."

The canine reached out her arm, "Good luck out there." the canine added.

Riggs handed his flashlight to Skipper. The sheriff held up his flippers. "You'll need that."

"So do you. It's fine, really. One of the girls here has a smartphone; we'll be using that. Take it." Riggs insisted, handing Skipper his black flashlight.

Skipper reached for the torch, "Thank you,"

"Are we all done kissing each other's asses? Let's fucking go already." Ray stated, helping Rico off the ground.

A smile erupted on Skipper's face. A woman from the clothing store Skipper had encountered earlier handed her smartphone to Riggs. The flash switched on; illuminating most of the obscure tunnel they were heading for.

Both groups hopped down the platform and onto the tracks. Riggs's group headed East while Skipper's headed North.

New York-Presbyterian/Queens Hospital, Queens County, New York

The news anchor and his cameraman were both kicked out of hospital grounds. Kowalski always knew the media would mostly get things incredibly wrong during a catastrophe or a historical event, but seeing it up close and personal made him sick to his stomach. He could thank Skipper for all things he's feeling right about now.

The tall penguin made his way to Stetson's room. He had nurses check on his feathered friend's vitals on the regular. Probably once every fifteen to twenty minutes.

Kowalski looked around; making sure Emily wasn't around to see him or anyone inside. He turned the knob and opened the door. A nurse had just finished looking through Stetson's vitals. Kowalski glanced at the nurse, waiting for a response. He didn't want Stet to hear if he's getting worse or getting better. The nurse simply shook her head, replying to Kowalski's question. The strategist's head lowered.

"Thank you," Kowalski thanked before nurse left the room, leaving both avians alone. "How are you feeling?"

"I can't really feel much at all." Stetson replied, his sore eyes met with Kowalski's. The infected avian was sweating profusely. Secretion dripped down Stetson's beak. His eyes were sunken back into his skull. His face looked like it was hanging on by a thread.

"You want me to go fetch the Chief to have a look at you?" Kowalski inquired.

"I. . ." the avian trailed off, "I. . ."

Kowalski waddled closer to the dying bird. "What's wrong?" Kowalski inquired.

A pained expression eclipsed Stetson's face. He hunched over as coagulated blood surged from the back of his throat and splattered against the blue bedspread. With another violent contraction, contents from the inside of his stomach and another unknown area emerged and splattered against feathers, the bed and the ground, coating all three places with blood and creamy chyme.

Kowalski ran for the door, "HELP!" the tall penguin cried, "I need some assistance over here!"

Three nurses dropped everything and ran towards Stetson's room.

"Get a crash cart!"

Kowalski stood next to Stetson, grabbing his wing. The infected bird had spewed all of the congealed blood out of his throat and nose, now blood in its liquid state began flowing out from his beak and from his nostrils.

N Route, New York City, New York

Skipper's group had been traveling up Canal Station's N Route for what felt like a good thirty minutes. Skipper held point, pointing his flashlight in front of him, illuminating their path ahead. Private held the map of all the stations and routes that were ever built underneath the streets of New York City.

Private would occasionally fold the map down, scan the path ahead of him, look to the wall on his right, mark a certain spot on the wall, and look back at the map. That way, he wouldn't trip over any stray garbage, wooden planks, or anybody for another few feet until he passes the spot on the way he had marked earlier, repeating the process.

It was deafly quiet. The only sounds that would enter anybody's eardrums were the sounds of their feet stepping on the gravel.

Skipper shined the flashlight to his left, revealing another station's platform.

"Stop," Skipper ordered.

The group came to a halt. Another station could mean people hiding out. . . or a group of the. . . undead? Skipper still wasn't sure on what to call the potential hostiles. Skipper turned to the young penguin holding the map.

Private ran his flipper up the spine that was N Route. "Prince Station. We're looking at Prince Station. A little further down and we'll be entering Broadway-Lafayette Station." the young penguin explained.

Skipper pointed the flashlight down their path. "What's up above?"

"Justa Forever 21, an H&M and a Victoria Secret." Private replied. The young penguin followed the route Broadway-Lafayette offered. "If we keep going, we can take Broadway-Lafayette, it'll cut our distance to Grand Central Station by half. Both Prince and Broadway intersect at Union Square, which is just about half a mile away." Private added.

"Is there another Broadway station ahead?" the sheriff inquired.

Private stuck his face back in his map. "Yes. Well. . . not quite. Not sure whether this little line is a station or not. If it isn't, then the next station is Union Square." Private replied.

Skipper faced Private again. "And Broadway cuts our distance in half?"

"It does."

Skipper nodded. "We take Broadway then. We'll take a break when we reach the second station or Union Square. Whichever comes first." Skipper planned.

"Weapons out." the sheriff ordered as the group grew closer to Prince Station's platform.

Skipper shined the torch on the obscure platform. Luckily for them, there was no one there. With this in mind, Skipper climbed up onto the platform. A faint growl was heard coming from the end of the tunnel; more and more joined by the second. They were down there.

"What are you doing now?" Ray inquired.

Skipper trotted to the opening of the tunnel that led to the outside. He flashed his flashlight down the tunnel. Still nothing. He reached for the handle of the gate and pulled. The sheet of metal came down, smashing against the piled floor. The sudden noise echoed down the tracks.

"Don't need anyone or anything accidentally following us in the dark." Skipper replied.

"I guess."

Skipper jumped down, letting out a faint pained grown.

"You believe that girl from earlier? About the dead walking amongst the living?" Ray inquired.

Skipper shook his head, "I don't know what to believe in anymore after what we've seen up there." the sheriff pointed the flashlight up at the ceiling, supporting his statement. "People eating each other? That's something you hear straight out of camp when exchanging ghost stories."

The group reached an intersection.

"Right." Private announced.

On cue, Skipper pointed his flashlight down the right path. The light almost instantaneously touched Broadway's platform.

"What do you think is causing all of this?" Private inquired.

"Well that girl kept mentioning chemical bombs. I seriously doubt that. If there was any sort of bombing, we would've heard about it beforehand. We'd know where the bomb was placed, where all the firefighters and ambulances were heading, hell, we would've actually heard the damn thing. Seen smoke rising up in the air or some shit." Ray shrugged.

"I could think of a person who's probably got an answer to all of this already." Skipper replied; Kowalski coming into mind.

"K'walski?" Private inquired.

Skipper smirked. "By the way, how did you get out of Brooklyn Bridge? I've been meaning to ask, but couldn't find the time. Guess now's a good time."

Ray sighed. "These two were just stuck on the windows, watching you grow further and further away. We were coming up on the entrance into the bridge when we saw the jets. People panicked. The bridge blew up. That's when everyone just ran out of the bus. I grabbed Rico and just high-tailed it out of there. Private followed close behind. I don't know, it all just happened so fast. I know that sounds incredibly ridiculous and cliché, but that's how it felt. It was just tunnel vision or some shit. We just ran the hell out of there, didn't stop for one bit. We circled back; that's when Private saw you in the distance climbing that bus. Then the undead attacked. And here we are now, treading down some incredibly malodorous tracks to the gates of hell."

"Thing is, I was just so focused in to getting Rico and Private to safety. Everything else just fades into itself. If we really are heading into the belly of the beast, there isn't anybody else I would follow into the darkness other than you, Skipper. . . Mainly because I've got no one else, but you get the gist." Ray added.

Skipper glanced at Ray, "Since when did you start getting sentimental?"

"Just hoping whenever you and I ever get into a situation like I did on the bridge, you treat me like Rico and Private here; not abandoning me and shit." Ray smirked.

"Don't plan to anytime soon." Skipper replied, shining his flashlight back at the path ahead.

Rico lifted his head, turning his head behind him. The injured penguin stopped in his tracks. He was semi-able to support himself up at this point. Ray turned to the penguin.

"What's wrong?" Ray inquired.

Skipper turned, pointing his flashlight at Rico. "You hear something?" the sheriff inquired.

It wasn't something that he heard, rather what he felt. The weapons expert squawked and pointed at the ground. The group became still. Nothing could be heard besides the beating of their own hearts. That's when they felt what Rico was feeling. Ray got down on his knees and placed his paw on metal rail. The vibrations increased in intensity with every waking second they stood there.

"You've got to be shitting me. . ." Ray snarled.

"When's the next station?" Skipper quickly asked.

"I-Uh, I'm not sure if this one's a station." Private stammered, pointing to the station he mentioned earlier.

Skipper grabbed the map, checking where Private's flipper landed. "It is, c'mon let's go!" Skipper ordered. Rico wrapped his flipper over Ray's shoulder and the both of them began trotting down the tracks, trying to keep up with Skipper and Private.

Skipper kept the light facing forward, lighting up the path ahead of them. The next station was just up ahead. If they keep up this pace, they could–

A rotten smell began to plague the air, coating their lungs with every breath they took. The groans and the cries began creeping into their ears as they made their way towards the next station. The bloodcurdling screams and moans grew closer.

The first zombie was illuminated by Skipper's flashlight. Its grey, murky eyes met with Skipper's. Its jaw opened, letting out a low growl as it reached out its arms. Skipper swung his flashlight, striking the reanimated corpse on the head. When Skipper brought the beam of light up, it illuminated the second station's platform, which was flooding with zombies.

"Shit!" Ray let out, grabbing his weapon from its holster.

"Stick to the edge! Don't let them get a hold of you!" Skipper ordered, pushing Private away from the platform.

Zombies followed the sounds of their prey and the movements of the beam of light that branched over the arch of the tunnel and its sides. They all migrated towards the source. Some walked off the platform and fell flat on the ground. Some landed on their two feet and began jogging towards their kill.

The ground's tremors were felt twice as much as before. The train was gaining on them, and there was nowhere for them to stop and get out of the train's path.

"Union Square's another three hundred feet away, we won't make it!" Private exclaimed, trying not to trip over himself.

"We'll make it, just keep running!" Skipper barked.

The atmosphere became warmer. Skipper flashed his light behind him, illuminating all the heads of reanimated corpses that were chasing them and the walls at the end of the tunnel began to irradiate. The wheels of the subway car were now audible as they traveled closer and closer towards Skipper and his team like a speeding bullet.

A loud blast echoed down the tunnel, nearly making everyone deaf as white noise instantaneously filled their ears. Light from behind began illuminating the walls around them. Skipper turned around, finally being face to face with the front of the advancing subway car that was up in flames. Fire scorched the walls of the tunnel as it grew closer and closer to the group.

Private buried his face in the map again, "Union Square's just up ah-" Private informed before tripping on the tracks of the tunnel.

Skipper stopped and ran back for the young penguin. "Keep going, GO!" Skipper barked at Ray and Rico. The sheriff grabbed Private by the broken flipper and lifted him up. The bones in Private's arm shifted and scraped more layers of skin, causing the penguin to cry out in agony.

Ray helped Rico up the platform of Union Square before grabbing his gun. Skipper helped Private up the platform. Ray pulled the trigger, killing a zombie that almost dragged Skipper back down onto the tracks. Rico helped his leader up the platform before the group of zombies flooded the tracks.

The end of the tunnel grew brighter and brighter before the train finally appeared. An sonic boom that resonated like a supersonic aircraft breaking the sound barrier was generated as the train exited the tunnel, disorientating Skipper and his group. Blood sprayed the walls and the survivors as the train plowed through the swarm of zombies. Appendages, organs and chunks of bloodied flesh were hurled onto the platform, painting the floors and the walls.

The blazing subway car from hell came to a stop. The insides of the car were engulfed in flames, melting steel and incinerating everything else that was inside. A few of the doors that weren't completely melted opened; acting like it was just an average day in Manhattan. The charred remains of a passenger that was leaning on one of the doors fell through and slapped against the tiled floor. Inside, dozens of charred bodies were piled on top of each other.

The flaming head of the charred passenger lifted off of the ground. A layer of melted skin stuck to the ground and stretched as the barely alive zombie faced Skipper's group. Its arm slowly stretched in front of itself, reaching for Skipper. Its mouth slowly opened before the lower jaw came apart and fell off of the zombie's face.

The flaming doors closed, slicing through the lower abdomen and popping some of the pockets of puss and plasma and stopped when they reached the spine. The train moved again, dragging the animal's body. The layer of skin on its chest had already begun to cool off on the floor and became attached; as the train moved, the layer of melted flesh peeled off of its chest, revealing the ribs and chest cavity. The train passed the next tunnel, causing the zombie to be wedged in between the wall of the tunnel and the side of the subway car. Its blood and remaining organs were smeared on the brick wall as the train traveled to its next stop, leaving the traumatized group behind.

Atlanta University, Atlanta, Georgia

The camouflaged vehicle sped to eighty miles an hour. The female soldier pressed hard on the gas, while Raymond grabbed hold of the assist handle above his door for dear life like a petrified kitten. The soldier brought the radio up to her mouth, "What's your ETA?"

Static

"About another few hours; most likely by sundown. Tungsten's been deployed in New York and in Philadelphia. Maryland's been behind schedule, but things are expected to pick up over the next few days."

Static

"You've ever picked up the fact that you're going three over eighty? Just five more miles and we'll be traveling through time." Raymond managed to say.

Ignoring her passenger, she raised the radio back up to her mouth. "Will Z-Com be ready by that time?" she inquired.

Static

"It's hard to tell. We'll have to wait and see for the next couple of weeks; take a good look at what exactly we're up against."

Static

The soldier made a right turn, following the road that led straight towards the front of the school. Large puddles of muddy splashed up against the sides of the vehicle, nearly reaching inside past the lowered windows. Raymond quickly turned to the designated driver in horror, "Ever heard of slowing down a bit?"

"You wanna get to your friends, right?" the soldier inquired, making another sharp turn, causing more mud to spray against the military truck.

"I'd just like to actually get there."

The solider smiled, "Oh, you've got a lot more to worry about other than my reckless driving. By the looks of it, it's the end of the world, sue me."

That last line caught him off guard. What did she mean by—those things back on the road. . .

"Those animals who're eating other animals?" the lemur asked.

"So, you've seen 'em? Nasty fucks. Don't know what's wrong with them or why they're acting the way they are, but I've got my theories. They're not telling us shit because they don't want us to worry about what's going on back home, our families. 'Cause that'll make us want to leave out posts, which'll leave safe-zones unprotected, which'll get even more people killed. Whatever's causing this, it doesn't discriminate." the soldier answered coldly.

Raymond sat there, not knowing what to say.

"All we know is that it's contagious. Not too sure how, but we know that one of the transmissions is through the saliva of the infected. I think it's that flu that's been going around."

"If it's the flu, wouldn't that mean that it's airborne? If that's the case, then this shit's gotta spread like a blazing inferno."

The feline sighed. "I don't know. The whole world's a whole lotta 'I don't know' right now." she turned to the lemur, "besides, we're here."

The dark, depressing atmosphere made the campus seem like an old abandoned insane asylums from the start of a horror movie. Tents and multiple military vehicles were spread across the large field that led to the front entrance of the school. Raymond didn't hesitate. He opened his door and jumped out, making a break for the campus. The soldier cursed to herself before stepping on the gas.

A pair of soldiers raised their guns at the charging mammal.

"Kyle?!" the lemur cried out to his friend. All the white tents, military trucks and soldiers scattered all over the place made it all seem like the aftermath of a war zone, which caused Raymond's heart to skip a beat upon seeing the skeletal wasteland that's become of the campus.

"Stop, goddammit!" the feline yelled. "He's with me!"

"My friends, have you seen them? Please, I need to get to them, one of them's got PTSD, if I'm not there, he could hurt himself, please, you have to let me through." Raymond pleaded to the soldiers who kept him from entering and exploring the field.

"Skylar, what the fuck is this?" one of the soldiers snarled.

"He just wants to see his family. That's it."

"Yeah, no shit. Only, we've been told to get people out of this area, not bring more into hostile territory."

"It's just the one, Mark. Back the fuck off."

The soldier looked back at the worried lemur.

"The only way you're going to keep me from being with my friends is to shoot me right in the fucking head." Raymond interjected.

The soldier glanced at Skylar. "Go ahead."

Union Square, New York City, New York

Skipper's right side was being stabbed repeatedly by a hundred knives. He placed his left flipper over his radiating side and began wheezing. All the running did a number on his deteriorating body. Each breath felt like a cinder block was falling on his chest repeatedly. His heart was racing for the millionth time, increasing his chances of having a heart attack at any moment. The sheriff rolled over and lay on his left side.

Private rushed over, "Skippah, are you okay?"

Skipper paused, trying to catch his breath. "Just. . . give me a moment. . ." the sheriff replied, not moving his eyes off of the bloodstained walls of the station. Flames rose from the wooden tracks, faintly illuminating the inside of the platform.

"So, I guess we won't be traveling in the tunnels anymore, huh?" Ray inquired, shaking his head. He turned his head to the motionless penguin. He could tell that Skipper was trying to hid his pained breathing from Private. "You alright over there?"

"I'm fine! Just. . . I just need a minute." Skipper's breaths grew quicker.

"You sure? You know I'm not gonna be able to carry your feathery ass around, I've already got Rico on that." Ray mocked.

Skipper ignored him. Rico wandered the platform with the flashlight. He was able to walk by himself, though he walked with a limp on his left leg. He flashed the flashlight to his covered flipper that was soaked with blood. Luckily for him, he had stopped bleeding, but all that running had made his head spin.

"Better tell me now that you're not feeling well. Give me a sign, a warning, something. Gotta give me some time to stretch first at least, shit." the lemur kept flapping his jaw.

"Eh!" Rico squawked.

Ray turned. "What is it, boy?"

Rico pointed his flashlight to the back left corner of the platform, revealing a corridor that led deeper into the station. Ray turned to the young penguin who sat beside the injured sheriff. "Private," the lemur called. "What's above us?"

Private hesitated. "I-I dropped the map on our way here." the young penguin confessed his crime.

Skipper shut his eyes; another blow to his physical state. His breaths were shallow and his chest was filling with air.

"But, I do think that there's a shopping center nearby." Private answered.

"You hear that, Skipper? Shopping center. Maybe I can get one of those baby strollers, that'll surely make everything easier."

Skipper remained quiet. A spasm of pain twitched across his face. He placed his right flipper on the ground and tried to lift himself up. His right side felt like someone had stabbed him with a dagger and began carving through the layers of fat and skin. He desperately tried to ignore the pain and pushed himself up with his trembling flipper. Private used his good flipper and helped his leader back up on his feet. The sheriff groaned in pain when he stood up straight. His body felt like it was run over by a train.

Ray walked over to the leader and placed his paws on Skipper's right side. The sheriff gasped in agony from the lemur's touch. The sheriff's right side felt tender. Skipper pushed the lemur away and began waddling towards the corridor Rico stood by.

"We can take a break if you'd like. No shame in taking a break." Ray suggested.

"There are hostiles in every corner. This place isn't safe. Manhattan isn't safe. This island isn't safe. We need to get to the hospital Kowalski's stationed at in Queens. We slow down and things like that happen. We let our guard down for a second and we get a swarmed by corpses, or get ambushed by them, or have flaming trains hurdling in your direction. We have to get Private and Rico to the hospital. The longer we stay down here; the chances of reaching Kowalski plummet. More obstacles appear, more breaks we take, and more people die. We keep going." Skipper said sternly as he made his way towards the corridor.

Ray sighed. "I lost my father to a car accident when I was seven." Ray dropped. "It all happened so fast, it was over before I even knew it started. Idiot didn't even see the car coming. We had the entire family packed into this SUV. Car ran a stop sign and slammed into us; van rolled over six times. Mom had her head through the windshield, glass sliced through her face and scalp like butter, it was insane. Sister's face was all cut up by the flying glass. Her face was the first thing I saw. The other car? Nowhere to be seen. It was a hit and run. I had major whiplash, which is why you see my neck twitch from time to time. My old man? He made it through the crash with just a few cuts. Ambulance arrive, we get to the hospital, and my old man rejects all medical treatment. He wanted us to be okay. He wanted to know. . . that we were going to be okay," Ray explained, following Skipper towards the corridor.

"I had surgery on my neck, my sister was all patched up, and my mom's flaps of skin were reattached to her skull. Then, my dad collapsed. Poor bastard didn't even know that he was bleeding internally. Massive hematoma. . ." Ray trailed off.

Skipper turned and faced the lemur that stopped in his tracks. Ray let out a long sigh, "He was so worked up over getting us to the hospital safe, making sure the doctors were doing their best that he didn't know he was dying. Worst thing about it was that it could have been easily prevented. He was just running around the hospital, unknowingly bleeding out." Ray looked up at Skipper. "You remind me of him; my father."

"Moral of the story," Ray placed his paw on Skipper's shoulder. "Taking care of all the people you love in your life is crucial; but if you're not looking out for yourself, all that taking care of would've been for nothing if you're not there to live their lives with them."

"I'm pretty sure you're just rambling by this point." Skipper shook his head.

"Look, we need to take a break; otherwise you're gonna burn out like a firework. And probably die because of it. You keep pushing yourself, you're gonna die. Then that'll be my blood on my paws, and you'll be leaving these two people to me. Do you really want that?" Ray inquired.

Skipper paused. "Private," the leader called. "Are you sure that there's a shopping center above us?"

"Umm. . . about seventy-five percent sure." Private answered.

"Seventy-five percent." Skipper repeated. "Alright, we pack up for supplies. Take a moment to catch our breaths. But, we'll be leaving again in fifteen." Skipper turned to the lemur, "Sorry about your father."

"Yeah," Ray muttered.

.

.

.

The group made their way down the corridor. The deeper they went, the more advertisements plastered on the brick walls there were. Adverts selling makeup products, exotic shampoos, concert tickets, movie posters, and all the different flavors of car insurances. Rico shined his flashlight on an EMPLOYEES ONLY door.

Skipper scanned the only door they've seen in a while. He turned to Rico and nodded. The weapons expert placed his flashlight in his beak and took off his police badge and slid the thin, metallic object at a downward angle. The badge slid in between the door frame, just above where the lock enters the frame. Rico slowly but firmly pulled the card towards himself, while turning the handle. The badge missed the bolt the first time. He let out a frustrated grunt.

"Maybe it's too big?" Ray chuckled, but was shut down by Skipper's piercing side-eye.

Rico slipped the badge in again, this time, the badge slid between the beveled interior side of the bolt and the frame. Rico let out a faint smile as he pulled the card towards him. The badge pushed the bolt out of the way of the frame, thus opening the door. Rico let out a menacing chuckle before opening the door.

Rico quickly shined the flashlight inside, revealing two small wooden tables and stacked chairs; to his left, two vending machines. Rico immediately ran toward the two pillars of creation. His stomach rumbled in excitement upon seeing his soulmates as he licked the glass pane that separated him from reaching his packaged snacks. The manic penguin licked his beak before lifting the flashlight over his head.

"Rico, NO!" Skipper barked.

Rico swung, shattering the glass pane and sending glass flying outwards. Upon impact, the dim fluorescent light panels above switched on, revealing more tables and chairs. The lights down the tunnel and platform illuminated with light as well. Ray trotted toward the metal door while Rico clawed his way into a small bag of greasy chips. The lemur looked to his left, finding two reanimated corpses slowly making their way towards them, following the noise of the exploding vending machine. Ray shook his head before shutting the door.

Skipper looked at Ray for an update. "I saw two of them. They're slow." the lemur replied.

Skipper nodded while he made his way toward the vending machine that sold water bottles. With the cooling system down for a few hours, the plastic bottles filled of translucent gold were had adapted to the outside temperature. The sheriff placed his flipper on the glass, checking for any sign of remaining coolness. Being that close to the glass, he was able to get a good look at himself. The blood seeping out from the gash above his eye socket had dried and formed a scab. The trail of blood ran down the side of his face, down his neck and stopped midway down his chest. He placed a flipper on his right side, but quickly pulled back from the stabbing pain that radiated from his touch. The skin felt tender, signaling that something inside his chest might've shifted or been broken.

"We're near the shopping center." Private announced, scanning the map.

"Rico," Skipper called. The manic penguin stopped scarfing down his second bag of chips to toss the sheriff his flashlight. Skipper shielded his eyes before breaking through the vending machine's glass panel.

"How's your flipper?" Ray asked the young penguin.

Private tried moving it, but the pain was too much he couldn't get much movement. "It still hurts, that's a good sign?"

Ray nodded. "You can still feel it, that's a good sign." the lemur smiled. He turned to Rico who was now pouring water on his head to cool down. He couldn't say the same for Rico's flipper. There are probably hundreds of horrible things building up in that flipper. The sound of a belt buckle turned his attention to Skipper who was taking off his pants.

"Uhh, Skipper?" Ray called.

"I don't see any napkins. No towels, no cloths, nothing. We should start dressing our wounds. Clean whatever we can, pack up on whatever we can and head out. It should be dark out; it'll be easier for us to not get noticed by those things outside." Skipper planned as he tore a piece of his uniform off and folded it.

"Let's take a look at that cut," Skipper told Private. He dabbed the piece of cloth in water before cleaning one of Private's cuts on his face. The young penguin winced at the burning sensation.

"We're still heading to Grand Central?" Ray inquired.

"We'll have to find a building; a tall one. Get above ground and take a look below the streets. Since our safest way of transportation just turned into a death trap, we'll have to travel above ground. Meaning we're going to have to face those things again. Get to a tall building and see what streets are flooded with corpses. Private's map can only tell us so much. With the power back on, we could probably distract them or something. But with Rico's condition, that's out of the question." the sheriff explained.

Ray looked at him when he mentioned Rico's flipper.

Skipper's eyes met Ray's, "Yeah, don't think I haven't been thinking about that. It'll take too long. And with the numbers we've seen? How big of a swarm they can grow to? There are millions of possible mishaps or setbacks we could face when distracting them just long enough to run down a street; too much of a risk."

"They're always gonna be out there. It's too much of a risk, matter what we decide on. Rico's arm can't wait any longer." Ray stated. He glanced at Private's arm again. "You said it's broken?"

"OW–that's. . . right. Ow. . ." Private winced.

"Did you splint it?" Ray asked.

"Didn't have time." Skipper answered.

"Then he doesn't have a lot of time either."

Skipper glared at the lemur. "When you're caught between two gathering shitstorms, you really don't have enough time to make things pretty or anything. You can only work with whatever you have in front of you. If I hadn't had acted fast, we probably wouldn't be here right now. All of us." Skipper said sternly. "Now, are you done critiquing every decision I've made before we got ourselves cornered?"

Ray rolled his eyes and focused them back at Private's flipper. "Alright, you didn't have to be an asshole about it. . ." he said under his breath.

Skipper sat back down on his plastic chair and let out a long sigh. Ray came up to him with a piece of his uniform and a bottle of water. Skipper shook his head in rejection, only worsening his headache.

The metal door's door handle jiggled before opening. Ray instinctively pulled out his weapon and pointed it at the opening entrance. The barrel of an assault rifle poked out from the door frame; then came the men in camo.

"We've got civilians." a soldier informed his teammate over the radio.

**Author's Note:**

> This is where I have to end the first chapter. I know, there wasn't much action in this chapter. Hell, there wasn't any at all. This chapter is just me building a universe, having the characters experiencing real world dilemmas. I didn't like how I originally wrote it. The beginning is completely different, but the path and the end is somewhat the same. Don't worry, the action will be coming. I can also confirm that there will be one hundred episodes. Which means, there will be four hundred chapters for his main story. I've explained this on the original version of this fic.
> 
> So, the characters might seem a bit off, but I'm trying to make things realistic. You know, adding realism when a cartoon penguin collides with a brick wall, unscathed is a bit tricky. They've got to have at least broken their beak, snap a few ribs, and fracture their cranial cavity. Add actual logic to a fic, unlike how many of these so called 'authors' nowadays seem to ignore.
> 
> I've got the first 7 chapters written, so expect weekly to bi-weekly updates.
> 
> Thank you for taking the time to read this! *heart emoji*


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